Heart Bones

by Colleen Hoover

when you’re the worst of people, finding the worst in others becomes a survival tactic of sorts. You focus heavily on the darkness in people in hopes of masking the true shade of your own darkness.

I wonder what kind of upbringing is worse for a human. The kind where you’re sheltered and loved to the point that you aren’t aware of how cruel the world can be until it’s too late to acquire the necessary coping skills, or the kind of household I grew up in. The ugliest version of a family, where coping is the only thing you learn.

I want to be the reason I turn out the way I’m going to turn out.

Sometimes I believe personalities are shaped more by damage than kindness. Kindness doesn’t sink as deep into your skin as the damage does. The damage stains your soul so bad, you can’t scrub it off. It stays there forever, and I feel like people can see all my damage just by looking at me.

Damaged people recognize other damaged people. It’s like a club you don’t want a membership to.

A father should be more aware of what’s going on in his child’s life.”

It’s like he puts the focus on the saddest part of whatever is in view of his lens, but the picture as a whole is still beautiful.

for me to begin with.” I pour my coffee into the sink and rinse the cup out.

“There are two different kinds of wrong. The wrong that stems from weakness and the wrong that stems from strength. You made that choice because you were strong and needed to survive. You didn’t make that choice because you were weak.”

You can fill your life with nice things, but nice things don’t fill the holes in your soul.”

“What fills the holes in a soul?” Samson’s eyes scroll over my face for a few seconds. “Pieces of someone else’s soul.”

I want to know if there are addictive things in an animal’s natural environment. Or are humans the only species who sabotage themselves and everyone around them with their addictions?”

The only thing I’m going to hold on to from this point forward are the good things.

No matter who Cierra was in high school, or who I was, we’re all made up of more than our past behaviors, good or bad.

I no longer want to be the version of myself who judged people before accepting them. I was projecting all the behaviors I resented.