Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

by Cheryl Strayed

She understands that attention is the first and final act of love, and that the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap oil or potable water or even common sense, but mercy.

Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.

forgiveness doesn’t mean you let the forgiven stomp all over you once again. Forgiveness means you’ve found a way forward that acknowledges harm done and hurt caused without letting either your anger or your pain rule your life or define your relationship with the one who did you wrong.

And this woman was not just any woman, but an impossibly lithe modern dancer, her body so tight and taut and bitch fiddle-esque I might as well be the Pillsbury Doughboy.

I’d rather be sodomized by a plastic lawn flamingo than vote for a Republican,

Sometimes when I’m all pretzeled up inside and my own crazy lady is nattering on, I’ll stop and wonder where she got her information.

I never believed the boys were angry. I believed they were hurt and anger was the safest manifestation of their sorrow.