Before I Forget Quotes

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. - Kierkegaard”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“It's an interesting idea: the regenerating heart. After all, we do go on, no matter how much we shudder with grief. And maybe our hearts don't ache because they're scarred or broken or because something is wrong. Maybe they ache because they are shape-shifting. Like the growth spurts of our youth, they make us quake with change; but once weathered, they leave us stronger and even more ourselves. Not our final selves, or our best selves, or even our improved selves, but just our next selves. As I now know, we are always between selves. It doesn't mean we are lost—It means we are growing.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“What I didn't know then: coming of age isn't something you can choreograph, and it doesn't happen all at once. You start the process; you stall; you regress; and then comes another growth spurt. Eventually, your path looks like a series of paw prints in the snow-layered, as if compelled by confusion or curiosity-that double back before veering off in the direction of destiny.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Nina is living proof of the theory that eldest daughters carry the weight of the whole family on their shoulders.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“guilt is conniving. It befriends your ego and tries to convince you that everything’s about you—the past”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“the ability to do nothing but feel everything, to hold on to life so lightly that it has a chance to bowl you over.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“The summer solstice is almost upon us, and it must be making me loopy—”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“you’ve got to dance where you are, baby.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“adults had the capacity to twist themselves into knots rather than face the hard truths of their lives.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“When you are full of questions, you are drawn to people who look like answers.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Sometimes our mistakes define us—that’s just how life is.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Part of me feels like a teenager who is sneaking off to do something illicit: another part of me feels like a tired parent who is finally getting a night out. I have to remind myself that, somewhere in between those parts, I am also a young adult who has a life to live.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Everyone’s life looks fun on social media; that’s the sorcery of it. Your soul may be slowly decaying, but there’s a filter for that.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Empathy is a good thing, but I might have too much of it.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“He might not have been the right husband for me”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“He said our bodies knew where we belonged; sometimes it just took a while for our minds to catch up.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Everyone’s life looks fun on social media; that’s the sorcery of it. Your soul may be slowly decaying”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Alzheimer’s is not funny”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“To the contrary”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“What if alzheimer's isn't just a slow death? What if it's another dimension entirely? An ascension, even. We humans are so fixated on our minds that we see their loss as a tragedy, but what if it's a gift? Maybe the erosion of memory clears space for something truer. Maybe the intelect gets in the way of the heart, until little by little it doesn't. How freeing, I think.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“You’ve got to dance where you are, baby”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“a good oracle shows you what you already know.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Sometimes our mistakes define us - that's just how life is.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Do you feed me? Brush me? Soothe me? Am I safe?”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“...I know that she has given me a gift, too: the feeling of being both mothered and understood. I hadn't realized how badly I needed those things, and I never knew heartbreak and healing could be so intertwined.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“...I think this is what meditators are after: the ability to do nothing but feel everything, to hold on to life so lightly that it has a chance to bowl you over.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“Everyone's life looks fun on social media; that's the sorcery of it. Your soul may be slowly decaying, but there's a filter for that.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“My best self can fuck right off,” I say and then immediately feel bad. I apologize to the limp bag. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. That was my quarter-life crisis talking.” I’m convinced I have hurt the tote’s feelings, so I grab it from the pile. Empathy is a good thing, but I might have too much of it.”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget

“It’s an interesting idea: the regenerating heart. After all”
― Tory Henwood Hoen, Before I Forget