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RIP friend…

February 21, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner 14 Comments

tulip coming up!

Today I intended to write about my weekend and the spring-like weather and how my tulips and daffodils are peeking through the soil and how one incredible thing after another happened including I got a new car! And, all these things are true.

Maybe I’ll write about them tomorrow.

But today?

Today, I sit and stare into space trying to wrap my brain around the devastating news I received just hours ago. News that a friend has died.

I attended Baylor with Craig Farrelly. He was in my wedding.

One week ago, I saw his sweet wife at my book signing in Blytheville. We briefly chatted about their recent move from Osceola to Memphis. I didn’t get a chance to ask where’s Craig? but I assumed he was somewhere inside the crowded bookstore. Craig knew everyone, and he loved to talk and laugh and was not the type to stand in a long, slow, boring line.

But I never saw him. And that was that.

Today, everything I’ve been working toward and worrying about seems inconsequential as I am reminded that life is oh so fleeting and precious and unpredictable. We have such a limited time to make a difference, to help someone, to brighten someone’s day.

To do something that matters.

To be kind to one another.

To exist.

Today, I sit and stare into space and search for an answer knowing there isn’t one. And I’m feeling smothered with friend guilt, wondering if I could have done anything. Any small thing to make a difference.

After a week of warm weather, snow is in the forecast for Northwest Arkansas, and I think about my tender tulips and daffodils barely poking through the ground, and it all seems so incredibly tragic.

RIP friend.

Craig Farrelly and me

Musical Pairing:
James Taylor & Carly Simon, Close Your Eyes

Ladybug

January 1, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 10 Comments

for Andie…


Maybe she was simply needed
In another place, too perfect for this one. The
Raw reality of her
Absence still fresh years later. Taken just after
Christmas—the sheer timing cruel. A
Loss so incomprehensible
Especially in
One so young. Life unrolls in delicate,
Fragile waves, ridden but not understood. We
Trust 
He has a plan
Even while we
Languish, gasping for air. And then
A reminder. Hope, love, beauty touches the
Depths of a mother’s heart.
Yellow, raw pain soothed as hundreds of ladybugs—
Brilliant red dots of joy—
Uproot 
Grief. If only for a moment.

Miracle of the Ladybug
morgueFile

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

Click to BUY NOW!

Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

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