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listen to me, dear. You can’t wait for the perfect time to do things, because there is no perfect time.
What they didn’t know was how I sometimes wondered if loneliness drove my compulsive need to please others as much as kindness did.
“Just because something is right or true doesn’t make it simple.
All my life I’d been reliable. A team player. Generous with my time and love. Loyal. Hardworking. Self-sacrificing. What had it all gotten me? No one thought me any more special than anyone else. My own husband didn’t even care enough about my feelings not to humiliate me and steal from my family.
For years, I’d told myself that doing good meant I was good. That doing better made me better. Yet looking back I can’t help but wonder if family dynamics, insecurities, and jealousies had warped me to the point where I no longer knew if I did things because I wanted to or because it was what pleased someone I loved. And if the latter, then what did that mean, and who was I, really? Was I someone with the courage to do what needed to be done when it wouldn’t please others—specifically my mother?
if we kept telling half truths, we’d never create an environment that encouraged—embraced—the actual truth.
“Dreaming’s easy. It lets you feel productive while you avoid the work it takes to make a dream reality.”
getting good at things requires commitment and learning how to come back harder if you fail the first time. Promise me you won’t quit things because you’re scared you’re not good enough.”
“Everyone’s a work in progress, so don’t put your love life on hold while you evolve.”
I wasn’t smarter than anyone, and no one gets through life unscathed.
“Most people are good people, yet bad things happen every day. You and I? We aren’t unique victims. Erin’s right—we need to learn to roll with life’s punches. We didn’t deserve what’s happened, but if we’d been less prideful, we might’ve seen it coming. Being gossiped about won’t be fun, but worse things could happen,
I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. I could control only my own way of handling life, which meant I had to let go of my need for perceived perfection.
How others respond to pain or fear is their choice.
