Rock Paper Scissors

by Alice Feeney

We weren’t always the people we are now, but our memories of the past can make liars of us all. That’s why I’m focusing on the future. Mine. Some days I still picture him in it, but there are moments when I imagine what it would be like to be on my own again. It isn’t what I want, but I do wonder whether it might be best for both of us. Time can change relationships like the sea reshapes the sand.

Marriages don’t fail, people do.

My husband doesn’t cheat on me with other women, or men, he has love affairs with their words.

Four-legged creatures tend to make better companions than those with two, and dogs don’t hold grudges or know how to hate.

Preach

sometimes the dust of our memories is best left unswept.

Nostalgia is a dangerous drug, but I enjoy the sensation of happier memories flooding my mind.

words don’t come with gift receipts and you can’t take them back.

Life is all about choices, and learning how to put ourselves back together when we fall apart.

All people are addicts, and all addicts desire the same thing: an escape from reality. My job just happens to be my favorite drug.

I know what it is like to be abandoned by someone who is supposed to love you. There is nothing worse.

@ my dad

Getting married costs a pretty penny, and pennies are prettiest when you don’t have many of them.

Some people say that marriage is like wine and gets better with age, but I guess it all depends on the grapes. There are definitely years that were more pleasurable than others, and I’d have bottled them if I could.

Affection is like playing the piano and you can forget how to do it without practice.

I doubt he felt the same way, but feelings don’t have to be mutual to be real.

I wish people were more like books. If you realize halfway through a novel that you aren’t enjoying it anymore, you can just stop and find something new to read. Same with films and TV dramas. There is no judgment, no guilt, nobody even needs to know unless you choose to tell them. But with people, you tend to have to see it through to the end, and sadly not everyone gets to live happily ever after.

We’re all responsible for casting the stars in the stories of our own lives, and she cast me in the role of her husband. Our marriage was an open audition, and I’m not sure either of us got the parts we deserved.

I’ve gotten good at feeling guilty for doing what is best for me. And guilt is one of those emotions that rarely comes with an off switch.

Being shy and being unfriendly are not the same thing, but sadly most people cannot tell the difference.

We all leave some small part of ourselves behind.

the world keeps turning, and the years go by, regardless of how much she wishes she could turn back time. She wonders about that a lot: why people only learn to live in the moment when the moment has passed.

Sometimes it is best to let people think you will follow them, until you are certain that you won’t be lost on your own.

We’re all too busy looking down to remember to look up at the stars.

Enjoy the stories of other people’s lives, but don’t forget to live your own.

I don’t know who I’m supposed to be if I can’t be the me I dreamed I would be.

“We don’t all want to rule the world, some of us just want to make it a better place.”

Trust can’t be borrowed; if you take it away, you can’t give it back.

I care more about liking myself than being liked by others these days, and I don’t waste my time on fake friends anymore.

Sometimes the early bird eats too many worms and dies.

But if there’s one thing I have learned from life as well as fiction, it’s that nobody is ever just a hero or just a villain. We all have it in us to be both.”

I found my person when I found you, and I’ve never really needed or wanted anyone else since.

After seducing me, her best friend’s husband, trusting her is something I’ve never been great at.

I had to pause, gasp and reel

dreams can only come true if we dare to dream them in the first place.

Dreams are like dresses in a shop window; they look pretty, but sometimes don’t fit when you try them on. Some are too small, others are too big. Luckily, my mother taught me how to sew, and dreams can be adjusted to fit, just like dresses.

We are our parents’ echoes and sometimes they don’t like what they hear.

We’re not born afraid. When we’re young, we don’t hesitate to run, or climb, or jump, and we don’t worry about getting hurt or fret about failure. Rejection and real life teach us to fear, but if you want something badly enough, you have to take the leap.