A Pessimist's Guide to Love (Heartsong, #2)

by Jennifer Hartmann

My father told me once that the only pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the treasures we put there ourselves. And if there is no value waiting for us, we need to look for another rainbow.

“Point is, we all have regrets, and sometimes we crucify ourselves enough, and that’s all the punishment we need. All we can do is learn from them and try to be better.

Guilt is powerful—I don’t think it ever goes away. It changes a person.”

“Deceptive Cadence” You think you know what’s coming, but you never really do. And sometimes, when you think something is coming to an end, it’s actually the beginning of something beautiful.

Once you lose something precious, it changes you. Sometimes you hold onto things too tightly and they crumble in your hands, and sometimes you don’t hold onto them at all. At the end of the day, you’re still losing.

Songs are funny like that—you might not hear them play for years, but you still remember every word. And I think it’s because songs are more than words, more than notes, more than verses and choruses. Words fade and scatter over time, but songs tied to life’s most precious memories live inside of us forever.

I’m not sure if the words are ones I should or shouldn’t say. All I know is they’re the ones I want to say. And I think that’s all that matters. In the grand scheme of life, that’s what counts.

Everyone has demons. Monsters lurking around every corner, whispering in your ear, hiding under your bed, living just beneath your skin. The key is turning your demons into friends. Companions. Don’t let them scare you. Don’t let them chase you. Let them run with you. Only then, you will win.

There’s no reason for suffering, but there’s always a reason to keep going.

“It was the end of something, and I know that can feel like the end of everything.

“But it doesn’t have to be. We’re all capable of starting over, it’s just a matter of finding that meaning. That little something to look forward to.”

“Even a tragedy can have a happy ending. Sometimes we just need to write it in ourselves.”

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that it always comes with an unsavory side of heartache. There’s no joy without grief, no fulfillment without loss, no laughter without pain. Yin and yang. That’s just the way the world works, and I guess it’s up to us to weigh the good and the bad.

Life is unexpected, fortuitus. All we can do is appreciate the moments we have while we have them.”

There’s a place in my heart reserved just for them. And there’s a place for every new, beautiful experience that comes my way. There’s room for it all.

Strength. Perspective. Appreciation. Resilience. Those things are often buried, overpowered by grief’s mighty right hand—suffering. They exist, though. There’s beauty in the breakdown, a glimmer of light hidden in the smoke.