These Things Hidden Quotes

“You were a wish that we made every morning when we woke up and a prayer we said before we went to bed each night,”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“But under the surface, beneath my skin, it was like my blood was boiling. I couldn’t sit still, I could never rest.”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“I’ve made no friends here, I have no happy memories, but I do have something that I have never, ever had in my life: peace, which is a rare, precious thing. How I can be at peace for what I’ve done? I don’t know, but I am. When I was younger, before I was in prison, my mind never stopped racing. It was constantly go, go,”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“It's not going to be easy," she says, looking up at me. "it's probably going to get a lot harder before it gets easier. No one can change what you did or what has happened in the past." I lower my head and start to cry again. "But-" she says so sharply that I have to look up at her again. "But you do have control over who you are no and how you carry yourself. Do you understand?”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“I had this thing I did to help calm myself at night. I’d lie on my back, tuck the covers around me just so and imagine that I was in a small boat. I would conjure a lake so big that I couldn’t see the shore and the sky would be an overturned bowl above me, black, moonless and full of winking fairy lights for stars. There would be no wind, but my boat would carry me across the smooth, dark waters. The only sound would be the lazy slap of water against the side of the boat. This calmed me somehow and I could close my eyes and rest. Because I was only sixteen when I got to prison, I was separated from the general population until I turned eighteen. After surviving the first terrible weeks, I suddenly realized that I didn’t need my boat anymore and I slept just fine.”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“always asks how her nursing classes”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden

“I get Allison’s letters. Sometimes I wish that I could write back to her, go see her, act like a sister to her. But something always stops me. Grandma tells me I should talk to Allison, try to forgive her. But I can’t. It’s like something broke inside me that night five years ago.”
― Heather Gudenkauf, These Things Hidden