You Only Live Once

by Maxine Morrey

‘You can be terribly annoying at times, you know that too, don’t you?’ ‘I’m your brother. It’s in the contract.’

What I thought I wanted and what I actually needed had been, I realised now, two very different things.

Even when your life had been shattered, nature’s cycle continued and, at a time I found it hard to discern comfort in anything, I did find some sort of comfort in that.

Other people may have our best interests at heart but, in the end, these important decisions have to be our own and we know what feels right.

‘I like to think there’s always something redeemable, even when it looks like all hope is lost.’

‘I think we all get caught up like that from time to time until we find out that what we actually need is the opposite of what we’re doing.’

Do you believe in soulmates?’ ‘I think I do, yes.’ ‘Do you think you only get one per lifetime?’ ‘No. I don’t. And I think they can come in all forms as well. I think you can have platonic soulmates as well as romantic ones.’

we do what we think we should do at the time. It’s easy for others to tell us what they think we should be doing or for us to look back with hindsight, but we don’t have all the information at the time, and we just have to act with what we have.

‘I guess that’s why, if we really want something, we just have to find a way of getting it, or at least of trying to get it. Then you’re never left with the what if.’

‘Do you think I’ve been horribly selfish?’ ‘No,’ Jack said. ‘I don’t. You were devastated and you did what you had to do to try and keep yourself sane. But I do think it’s possible to get into a habit, a rut, which can then be very difficult to get out of, partly because we’re so used to doing things a certain way, and partly because then doing something different can seem overwhelming.’