Wonderland Wanderess

They didn’t say it out loud, or otherwise make it known, No speeches made, no painted signs, no big words overthrown. Forgiveness, it came softly; quiet, and slow, Like light through a door I’d bolted with, “No.” It lived in their laughter—careless and free, In hands reaching out, without doubting me. In the way they said, “Mum”—still warm; still whole, Like my broken past hadn’t swallowed the role. I carried my shame, like a weight on my chest, They carried none—they just wanted my best. I counted the nights I was half-there; not true, They never kept score of the things I’d undo. I judged my every failure; replayed my every fall, Built courtrooms in silence, where I’d sentence them all. While I punished my heart for the things I’d become, They were planning tomorrow, with me as their mum. Children don’t forgive with words carefully said, They forgive by believing you’ll show up instead. By asking for presence and trusting you’ll try, By sleeping in peace, sure you won’t say goodbye. ...

  This Christmas, it feels quieter; softer somehow still, An empty chair, a missing laugh, a space no joy can fill. The lights are up, the tree still glows, the carols drift and play, But part of us is holding our breath and learning how to stay. Your hands once wrapped the season up in warmth and gentle cheer, With stories told and love poured out, every single year. Now memories hang like ornaments: fragile, bright, and true, Each one a thread of Christmas love that leads us back to you. We feel you in traditions; in every shared refrain, In recipes and rituals that soften grief and pain. Though this is our first Christmas, walking without you near, We carry you inside our hearts, in every quietly shed tear. So tonight we’ll light a candle and let its silent glow remind, That love outlives the hard goodbyes we have to leave behind. Merry Christmas, Grandma—your light still shows the way, Not gone from us, just held in love, this Christmas and always. ©️ Wonderland Wanderess 2025

  Twenty years back, just kids in disguise, Wild hearts, sharp smiles, truth hid in our eyes. We found each other early, too soon to understand, How love can slip away, when time won’t take your hand. We fit like a secret the world couldn’t keep, But timing stood guard while we learned how to bleed. So fate pulled us sideways, said, “Go—learn the cost, You’ll find what is real, only after it’s lost.” It sent us through fire, through nights carved in doubt, Through breaking ourselves just to figure things out. We loved and we lost and we stood on our own, Learning strength is built when you’re left all alone. And still—after detours, wrong turns, and delay, After swearing we’d never come back the same way, Every version of me: cracked, weathered, and torn, Kept walking the road that led here, reborn. Because you are my home—not the place, but the truth, The shelter I earned after fighting my youth. After all of the miles, the twists and the bends, I’d walk through those storms again...