This Time Next Year

by Sophie Cousens

“We have a saying in France, ‘À chaque oiseau son nid est beau’—the bird loves his own nest. You don’t know any other nest, Minnie. You must spread your wings and learn to fly.”

“Be a good companion to yourself and you will never be lonely.” It was one of Leila’s highest aspirations: self-sufficiency.

“Better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you’re not.”

“I don’t think the scale of other people’s problems makes your own any easier to live with.”

She regretted that everything felt like a battle with her family—battling to get away, battling to stay, battling to be heard. Then again, maybe everyone had something to complain about when it came to family—at

“If you kiss a man and he runs a mile, he’s no good. Life is full of times you have to turn toward the storm, and life brings many storms. Sick children, parents dying, cancer, just the challenge of building a life together and not driving each other completely nuts. You need a man who’ll turn in to the storm with you when it comes,

“Be a good companion to yourself and you will never be lonely”—that had to be the aspiration. She wanted to fuel her own fire. If you got your fuel from men, they could leave, and you’d be left alone in the cold.

“Life is change—if nothing’s changing, you aren’t living.”