How to Walk Away

by Katherine Center

You can’t ask someone to love you or be there for you or do the right thing—and you certainly can’t guilt them into it. Either they will or they won’t.

I didn’t want to be the reason other people counted their blessings.

‘When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for someone else.’”

“I want to thank you,” he said then, meeting my eyes. “You are the only good thing that’s happened to me since that day.”

Needing to find reasons to live had forced me to build a life worth living.

The greater our capacity for sorrow becomes, the greater our capacity for joy.

It seemed impossible that I could want something so badly—and also get it.

She’s easier on everyone these days—including, I suspect, herself.

Because that’s all we can do: carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can. Life is always, always both.