Expecting Adam Quotes

“Angels come in many shapes and sizes, and most of them are not invisible.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“The end goal of all of this striving is to live joyfully, and that there are often more direct ways of achieving this than conforming to rigid standards set by social custom.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“Most people go through their whole lives," John went on, "and never have one miracle happen to them. You've had dozens and dozens, and you still want more! It's like God gives you a brownie, I mean a really good brownie, but you can't be content with it. You want the whole pan of brownies. Nobody gets that.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“It was the first time I had spoken to them directly. In doing so, I felt myself cross a fine but very distinct line, the line between speculating about the existence of a metaphysical plane of some sort and climbing aboard for the ride. I knew I had let go of my sanity. It was terrifying. I only did it because my fear of what was happening to my body had become greater than my fear of holding on to rational beliefs.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“Occasionally, especially at celebratory times, the whole gang of us would launch into a spontaneous mental game. For example, my mother used to send me to the back porch (a room containing no furniture but a simply incredible mass of Stuff) to get flour for holiday cakes or pies. I often returned to the kitchen, cringing with disgust, to announce that the flour was full of worms. No matter how sick this made me, I knew it wuoldn't bother my mother. She always just sifted the worms out, saying that even if she missed a few and they got into the food, they would simply be an excellent source of protein. Just as we were all beginning to feel thoroughly downtrodden, my father would save the day. "Everyone come up with a literary reference about worms!" he would shout.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“And thus I learned that at Harvard, while knowing a great deal is the norm and knowing everything is the goal, appearing to know everything is an acceptable substitute. I pondered this great truth during the two-hour seminar. I was so buoyed up by it that I didn't pay enough attention to snorkeling up little bits of food in order to keep my nausea under control. I sailed right on into my next class, another seminar, confident that I could get through it without losing my lunch.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“Adam has angels like a dog has fleas. He came here with them, and the more time you spend around him, the more likely you are to get them yourself.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“This is it, I thought. This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“I also thought about that seminar classmate on Adam's ninth birthday. Adam had insisted on going to a pizza-and-games arcade for his party. The only person he'd invited besides his sisters was someone I'll call Lonnie, whom Adam claimed to be his girlfriend. Although I had often heard Adam sing about Lonnie, I had never met her, or seen Adam interact with any girl. I was afraid that he would start humping her leg the second she came in range. These were fears I'd sustained since before he was born; I though all people with Down syndrome were grossly overaffectionate. I was grossly wrong.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“The real magic is in the pumpkin, in the mice, in the moonlight; not beyond ordinary life, but within it.”
― Martha N. Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“instead of clinging to me for support, he was holding me up, embracing me, trying to help me trust that everything around us—the dolphins, the birds, the sun, the sky, the whole vast, blue Atlantic—was there to bring us joy. I think he may be right.”
― Martha N. Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“the single most important decision any of us will ever have to make is whether or not to believe that the universe is friendly.”
― Martha N. Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“One woman I knew decided, with her husband, to abort a planned pregnancy when a crucial three-day exam was scheduled near her due date. I don’t know whether she even asked if the exam could be rescheduled.”
― Martha N. Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“He says that you shouldn’t be so worried. He says you’ll never be hurt as much by being open as you have been hurt by remaining closed.”
― Martha N. Beck, Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

“You're blocking.”
― Martha Beck, Expecting Adam