A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)

by Becky Chambers

For anybody who could use a break.

Any other day, the act of going through a door was something Dex gave no more thought to than putting one foot in front of the other. But there was a gravity to leaving a place for good, a deep sense of seismic change.

Find the strength to do both.

Dex realized with a stomach-souring thud that they were standing on the wrong side of the vast gulf between having read about doing a thing and doing the thing.

“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.”

It’s very odd, isn’t it? The thing every being fears most is the only thing that’s for certain?

“So, the paradox is that the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior.” “Other than fear.”

So, how fucking spoiled am I, then? How fucking broken? What is wrong with me that I can have everything I could ever want and have ever asked for and still wake up in the morning feeling like every day is a slog?”

These pursuits are what make us, but without comfort, you will lack the strength to sustain either.’”

I do not have a purpose any more than a mouse or a slug or a thornbush does. Why do you have to have one in order to feel content?”

it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.