Quotes from Kris Radish

Once," Balinda begins softly, "when I was in the emergency room with my mother they brought in a murderer who had been shot and was dying, right there in front of us. I watched as the nurse touched his face and reassured him and I could not believe they were being so nice to him." "What happened?" Jill asked. "My mother rose up, took my arm, gripped it as if she was a weight lifter and said, 'he was a beautiful baby once and his mother loved him'.

But sometimes there is absolutely nothing like a damn, shit, or hell to get your point across

Family does not mean people with the same last name or the same DNA. It means people who care about you, who you trust, who you care about--people you can count on.

believing in the magic of life, the power of hope, the cosmic sanity of chance and change, and the unmistakable power of love.

Think of all the fabulous things that have happened in the world because someone has just done it-you know, just jumped off the cliff and worried about the dangers when it's all over.

This dying & grief stuff knows no boundaries. It doesn't matter if the pain of loss is for a baby, an elderly parent, someone who drops dead at 30, the sorrow & grief doesn't change because of age.

I love you, & will always love you. We gave each other the world in a way that the other could not always see. ... We are done, & we will never be done.

Why can't we have a funeral the way we want to have a funeral? Why don't we have a funeral to celebrate the way we lived? Tradition be damned. The sadness of the loss needs to honored & embraced, but for now I want to focus on celebrating.

Not only are there many ways to grieve, but showing sorrow, reaching out, being honest about your loss is as important as anything. ... Go kiss someone, go swim naked, go quit the job you hate, go celebrate your own life before it's over. Go. Do something with gusto & gratitude & with a laugh at the back of your throat, a laugh that never ends.

The grieving, she knows, never ends, and all that remains is the miracle of love. And she holds onto that miracle as if to save her life.

They wonder why everyone waits to send the note, make the call, say the one thing you know you should say.

No matter how together we are, no matter how many friends or kids or partners or dogs or goats we have, there are always moments where we not only feel alone, but lonely.

There's so much of her inside of me, yet we were so different, so very different. Sometimes the guilt I feel, because it took me so long to appreciate her, love her for what she was, & what she did for me almost consumes me.

Immeasurable space. Closeness. The shortest distance between two women.

It's going to be ok, you know that now, don't you? I know there will be something else, but I also know that it will be ok. It has to be ok.

She knows she will remember these last moments with her Mother every single day for the rest of her own life.

Life has so many pages to turn, & this page doesn't mean the story is over. The story is never over.

Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Florida Keys. New York City. The North Shore of Lake Superior. A small island close to Seattle. Those

For if people could see- if women especially could see- what is real and true and how the elegant possession of what is in each of our individual hearts is what matters more than anything.

I have tried very hard over the years to let you know how much I love you, & how I have treasured your place in my life. I choose no formal service because I know that death does not erase my memory in your life, & I suspect that you will not be gone from my lingering spirit either. ... Celebrate! I say! Life, death, living and this process of dying that parallels our lives every single moment.

What you think love is & how to should be changes.