words, words, words

“Regret hung from the hem of everyone's lives, a rip cord reminder that what you want is not always what you get. Look at himself, outliving Aimee. Or Az, trying to find his daughter, only to have her wind up dead. Look at Shelby, with a child who was dying by degrees. Ethan, born into a body nobody deserves. At some point or another, everyone was failed by this world. Disappointment was the one thing humans had in common. Taken this way, Ross didn't feel quite so alone. Trapped in your whirlpool of what might have been, you might no be able to drag yourself out - but you could be saved by someone else who reached in.” ― Jodi Picoult , Second Glance I just finished reading this book by Jodie Picoult. I know I make fun of her a lot and some of it is justifiable (she forces plot twists, she has similar characters in all her books, she tries intentionally to be shocking,and she churns out books as often as Peyton Manning films a new commercial...)...

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” ― Louise Erdrich , The Painted Drum LP I like this quote because yesterday I looked out of my window and the late afternoon sun was casting a golden shadow across a tree and it was such a serene, beautiful, simple thing yet it made me stop what I was doing and take a breath.  We forget how simple life can be; how beautiful like crisp sweet apples on a fall day. That simplistic beauty reminded me of my favorite place in the w...

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ― Terry Pratchett , A Hat Full of Sky I have been reflecting a lot lately on growth and how past influences present and future. I have also been thinking a lot about what I wrote previously: that I make things far more difficult for myself than need be. When I wrote that, it opened my eyes to a way of being that I hadn't seen in myself before. That is the magic and power of writing - it is better than a shrink at revealing secrets about yourself. I don't allow myself the easy route and maybe its because I don't think I deserve it or somewhere in my mind I believe that good things only come to those who have toiled hard and earned their place. What else explains my absolute disgust at rich people who ha...