Not what she meant; not what she meant at all.

She had a difficult conversation with her daughter. Despite an earnest wish to offer safety and solace, she went wrong somehow, expressed herself awkwardly, evoked her daughter’s inner teenager. After she hung up the phone, she went for a walk. She took refuge in abstracts like color and texture, and in faces of heartbreak on passing strangers. 

“Heartbreak is the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight.” --David Whyte.