Twenty Quotes

“Sometimes we have what we need right in front of us, but we’re programmed not to let it in.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“Maybe I've already woken. Because I know, in a way I didn't just three weeks ago, that this life is precious and beautiful and mysterious and wonderous even in its pain. I have spent so much of my life asleep, and now, just at the point where it might end, I see it as though it's all new.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“The flowering bushes growing in the cemetery look tired but regal. I could see every cut in the tombstones. The beauty of all the lives represented by those markers.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“All these years, I could have been remembering hundreds of beautiful moments with Rose and Mama. And I chose to lose my heart to sadness instead. I would do it differently now. For whatever time I have left, I will remember the joy, not the heartache.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“Once again, I thought, I gave up too soon.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“I've been a chronic list maker my whole life. It gives me some illusion that my life is under control or I can foresee the immediate future. Whenever my mind starts feeling like the desk catch-all drawer, writing things down makes me feel like I've cleared out the clutter, at least momentarily.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“...overwhelmed with contentment. I wondered how I could be so blessed, finding everything I ever wanted in the two people I loved most.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“That was when I started seeing her as a human being as well as my mom, and it was the first time I realized that we live many lifetimes within one life. Sometimes we pack up events and relationships and put them on the shelf, pushing them toward the back and closing the door on them.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“It's hard to believe how life sneaks up on you and accumulates until you don't even know how buried you are in the past, how much it encroaches on the present, and squeezes all the energy out of it.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“I used to think that forgiveness meant letting someone off the hook, denying that their betrayal hurt my soul. But now I can see forgiveness in a whole new light. I need to forgive myself for expecting this world, my life, to be different from how it is, to arrange itself according to my expectations.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“This is why we’re in relationships. To remember who we are. To know the love within us rather than the bitterness.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“Look at death not as an ending but as a sign of continuity... We are all connecting links. And sometimes when we step out of the chain, we allow new connections that could not have happened with us there.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“Make good decisions, but don’t let your fear stop you.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty

“That was the moment. That was the moment when I started to bend his strength against him, to reshape his words and meaning to hurt me since I could never, ever hurt myself enough.”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Twenty: A Novel