This Is How It Always Is

by Laurie Frankel

“For the moment’s all there is, my darling.”

But happy is harder than it sounds.

If the parents are sending negative messages—even silent ones—that what a child does and who a child is are not okay, those are very powerful for a young person.

You have to help him see that if he’s disappearing from the world, that’s too high a price to pay for fitting in.

“You can’t tell people what to be, I’m afraid,” said Rosie. “You can only love and support who they already are.

“Easy is nice, but it’s not as good as getting to be who you are or stand up for what you believe in,”

Leaving wasn’t weak, and it wasn’t giving up. It was brave and hard fought, a transition like any other, difficult and scary and probably necessary in the end.

Are you mad about the sin or about the lie about the sin?”

You are always the same child to me, my brilliant beautiful shining child, my baby.

You could not avoid being who you were, could you?