Both Things Are True

by Kathleen Barber

ahimsa encourages us to live in harmony with all beings, including the world around us.

Everything is sunshine and puppies until it isn’t, and then you move on because what else are you going to do? But no matter how much more sunshine or how many more puppies will be in your future, you’re never quite the same again.

Benny is a man constructed almost entirely of red flags, held together by hair pomade and bad ideas.

So what if he doesn’t exactly make my heart sing? Who cares if I have never once looked at him and thought I would die without this man? Really, who needs that kind of intensity in their life? I needed Sam like I needed oxygen, and look where that got me.

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, we let people down. Even people we love.

honor their own body and its limits, and I would remind them that ahimsa—the principle of nonviolence—starts with themselves.

“But seriously, there’s no guarantee it won’t end in heartbreak. Anytime you make yourself vulnerable to another person, you run the risk that they’ll hurt you.”

It’s hard to let people in. I know that. God, do I know that. But the times in my life that I’ve managed to get out of my own way and really open up to someone? That’s when I’ve been the happiest.”

At what point should I start defining myself by what I want rather than what the men want of me?

“I loved you with all of my heart. We should not have impulsively married in Las Vegas. Both things are true.”