She wanted her mother to choose her. Then she became a mother herself and poured everything she had into that love. And then that relationship broke too. If you are grieving someone who is still alive — no funeral, no goodbye, just an absence that sits beside you every day — this one is for you. You are allowed to miss them. You are allowed to hope. But please, while you are loving someone from a distance, don't forget to take care of yourself too.

For 24 hours, my whole family got emotionally invested in a baby lizard in the house. He wasn't fully inside — just stuck between the window and a torn screen during a storm. Then I named him Jamie, my daughter fell completely in love, and a casual rescue turned into a full family mission to get him home. It's a small, silly, heartwarming reminder that sometimes life hands you a big lesson, and sometimes it hands you a tiny lizard in a window.