Distance is its own kind of blindness.

I had not looked away from my mother.

I had simply been too far to see, and she had made very sure that the little I could see looked fine.

I have made my peace with that, mostly.

But it has changed how I hold the people I love who are far away, changed what I listen for.

I no longer take a smile on a small screen as proof of a good life.

I ask harder questions now, and I sit in the silences, and I pay attention to the things a person does not say.