Claire Bidwell Smith Quotes & Sayings

I imagine how good it must feel to them to know how much they are still loved and missed in this realm, and for a moment I let myself feel them loving me back. — Claire Bidwell Smith

We must learn to live in this world, because we have no other choice. What we do have a choice in is how we choose to live. We can remain gray and immobile in the wake of our losses or we can open ourselves up to the world, let the sunshine in, fill our surroundings with heaps of flowers, and know that we loved someone truly and deeply. — Claire Bidwell Smith

The world is a much bigger place than Bruner middle school. Those kids who make you feel bad? They're never going to know that. They'll grow up here, stay here, get married here, and have kids here. They'll never find out anything more than the petty grievances they're learning to inflict now.

But you, kiddo? You have bigger fishes to fry. I predict great things for you. — Claire Bidwell Smith

Her death leaves me both depleted and emboldened. That's what tragedy does to you, I am learning. The sadness and wild freedom of it all impart a strange durability. I feel weathered and detached, tucking my head against the winds and trudging forward into life. — Claire Bidwell Smith

...the only thing really worth doing in this life is giving love to everyone around you. — Claire Bidwell Smith

I realize in this moment that all my life I've felt that I deserve to be punished, for wanting so much, for taking so much from this world, from the people who love me. — Claire Bidwell Smith

I am silent, marveling at the power we have to unlock a person. — Claire Bidwell Smith

Three years passed. Three years without a mother. In three years my grief has grown to enormous proportions.
Grief is now a giant, sad whale that I drag along with me wherever I go.
My grief fills rooms. It takes up space and it sucks out the air. It leaves no room for anyone else.
Grief and I are left alone a lot. We smoke cigarettes and we cry.
Grief holds my hand as I walk down the sidewalk, and grief doesn't mind when I cry because it's raining and I cannot find a taxi.
Grief acts like a jealous friend, reminding me that no one else will ever love me as much as it does.
Grief whispers in my ear that no one understands me.
Grief is possessive and doesn't let me go anywhere without it.
Grief is force and I am swept up in it. — Claire Bidwell Smith

When we lose someone we love, suddenly nothing fits anymore. Who we thought we were is now a jumbled mess of memories and hopes we once had, for a future that now looks completely different. When we lose someone close to us we are forced to reevaluate our entire identities. We must figure out who we are now that this person is gone, and the experience can be overwhelming. — Claire Bidwell Smith

When you've gone through something traumatic, when you've faced death and loss as much as we have, it's only natural that it changes your entire view of life. — Claire Bidwell Smith

When I lost my mother, I also lost the reflection of myself that she showed me on a daily basis, a reflection of a young woman who was loved and cared about and wanted. Even the most important accomplishments of my lifetime have felt slightly hollow in her absence. Without the person who brought me into this world, I have struggled to feel like I am worthy of having a place in it. — Claire Bidwell Smith

I am them. And they are me. All of us, we are each other. There is no such thing as good-bye. — Claire Bidwell Smith