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Nonfiction is based on real things that actually happened, yes, but nonfiction is never exactly the full truth: it is our brains seeing ourselves in the mirror and wondering why our head is so big.
Sometimes mental health seemed to be simply a matter of discipline to her, or lack thereof.
Cruelty can take many forms.
Except cruelty can also be stealthy and insidious. Like dismissing one’s feelings, over and over again—until one day you start to forget how to feel anything.
“So how does it feel? How does it feel being a mom?” Seema had asked excitedly. “It feels good,” Mom said. “Because now I have something that’s all my own.”
I also had to find the love she couldn’t someday. As if love was something that could simply be found, like a pretty pebble on the side of the road.
His relationship with his faith wasn’t based on fear, but on love and respect.
be steadfast with religion, but appreciate and enjoy the gift of life. And good music, he felt, brought us closer to God.
The only reason you’d want privacy is because you have something to hide.
Part of him, I think, was also incredibly lonely, and lonely people know what to say to other lonely people.
But I hated being in a world that demanded women protect themselves instead of punishing the men who would harm them in the first place.
Half the time, whenever someone says It’s not personal, it feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s a way to refuse responsibility for hurting someone.
arguments didn’t have to be conflict, didn’t have to be battles to be won. They could be about connecting and reconnecting.
it wasn’t enough. I wanted to hear an I love you outright, with no fear of vulnerability, without cloaking it behind a language neither of us spoke. I wanted to hear it from someone who wasn’t ashamed to say it in all its raw, proud truth.
But real, meaningful change needs no announcement. Real change speaks for itself.
Perhaps this is why we forgive people who don’t deserve it: nostalgia is a hell of a drug. It blurred all the bad, brightened the scant good, and told you pretty lies.
