Things I Learned in the Night

by Emily Byrnes

and I finally understand that karma isn’t magic, it’s the action of reaping what you sow.

why do we keep using love to justify pain? Love Does Not Hurt

I flip through the yellowing pages of a paperback book by Steinbeck that cost someone 99¢ in 1981 and it dawns on me; I’m just like poor Lennie. I love too hard and watch it die and never, ever understand why. Of Mice and Men

I bought these shoes for work and all of a sudden it’s three years later and I’m still wearing them, still complaining that they give me ingrown toenails but never doing anything about it. I’m like that, sometimes. I measure time by clothes that’ve gone out of style and speeding tickets the insurance company has finally let go and food that’s expired in the back of the fridge (has it been a week already?) Clocks and calendars are for fools who think they have any control, so I just let time slip by and pretend everything was “just yesterday” so I don’t feel like I’m speeding toward the finish line, because who the hell knows where the finish line is, anyway. Clocks and Calendars

Look at the storm, you said. See how the sky turns Poseidon blue and the waves crest white like Tibetan mountains? You said come, let’s go outside and feel it but I was too busy boarding up windows and checking flashlights to notice. You held out your hand and said I’d never see the beauty in life wearing glasses made of fear, but I didn’t take it. I’ve been hurt enough to know that when the storm alarm sounds, I’ve got to put up my walls or get out. How I Live Through Hurricanes