People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find…
I’ve come to think that’s what heaven is – a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on.” ,
Something inexorable seeds itself in the place of your origin. You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel.
It’s painful to hold out hope for the things that once brought you joy. You have to find ways to make yourself forget.
My heart is shattered, an all that’s left are jagged shards.
I remember her words to me when I left school: Your mind will be your comfort. It is, sometimes. And sometimes it isn’t.
I couldn’t have imagined how much more there was to lose.
I … am left with the lingering feeling that the places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to do with where our bodies go.
The smallest things get to her. It’s as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn’t — which, of course, is pretty often — she is surprised and affronted.
The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.
So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason — to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?” Molly asks when Vivian reads some of these stories aloud.”It certainly helps,” Vivian says.
I think about all the ways I’ve been perceived by others over the years: as a burden, a dutiful daughter, a girlfriend, a spiteful wretch, an inva
Know what a symbol is?…Shit that stands for shit.
To get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame.
Do our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control?
This life of ours can feel an awful lot like waiting.
He reaches over and touches my necklace. “You still have it. That gives me faith.” “Faith in what?””God, I suppose. No, I don’t know. Survival.
I want to say, Christina, that you are … unusual. And somehow…” her voice trails off. “Your mind– your curiosity– will be your comfort.
How did I go from being the maiden in a fairy tale to a wretched old maids so quickly? It happened almost without my realizing it…
I have come to think that’s where Heaven is, a place in the memories of other where our best selves live
It’s a peculiar kind of dissatisfaction, a bittersweet nostalgia for a moment not yet past.
I want each day to last forever . . . It’s a peculiar kind of dissatisfaction, a bittersweet nostalgia for a moment not yet past. Even in the midst of a pleasurable outing I’m aware of how ephemeral it is.
If you really want to know me, I said, we’ll have to start with the witches.
Molly is the opposite. So many things have gone wrong for her in her seventeen years that she’s come to expect it. When something does go right, she hardly knows what to think.
I’ll play your fucking game. But I don’t have to play by your rules.
It’s as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn’t – which, of course, is pretty often – she is surprised and affronted.
This is like telling a person who has leapt off a cliff to be careful. I am already in midair.
I am acutely aware that like a slip of paper in the wind, something in his nature eludes my grasp.
That man would have chipped away at your heart bit by bit until there was nothing left. It may have been bruised, but at least it’s whole.
It’s hard to say what’s in my head. It’s been a long time since anyone cared to ask.
Most people are remarkably resilient. Even those who have been through war or great loss often find reservoirs of strength. But the legacy of trauma is a heavy burden to bear.