J Raymond Quotes

It's an amazing thing when you finally settle in to knowing you'll never fit in. The difference between the rest of the world and you; you feel to much about too many things. And most others feel not enough, about too few. Keep standing out. Keep showing the crowd what beautifully flying free is all about.

They say, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"....I don't agree. Some things that didn't kill me, came so close that they're still damaging. They didn't make me better. Some things made me worse. And can't that be okay too? Can't some things just break you? This whole fucking world wants you to believe that admitting defeat makes you weak. For God's sake, bleed. And bleed openly. There can be pride in vulnerability. Honesty is maturity. And really, it's the things that did kill me, that made me.

The magic of each day lives in the unknown. It's waking up as one person, and accepting that when night falls, we may be someone else entirely. So, when you ask what my story is, forgive me----I'm not quite sure yet.

She'll let you put her in her place. But she won't stand for anything worse than first.

I was well aware of her ghosts. I'd met them, once or twice, during her darkness nights. "I knew you were my one when you wouldn't run," she said. How could I? Of course I stayed, when her ghosts scared my own away. What others were too afraid to see, meant everything to me.

Her heart was entirely hers. She wasn't foolish enough to give it to a boy. Boy's break things. But there was this one time, a boy dressed up as a man, almost touched it. Almost. But he's dead now.

It's not the small of her back, her thighs, or her chest or eyes that matter most. It's the parts of her she's afraid to show that you should get to know.

I fell in love, and she fanned my flames. They spread to soon, Quickly and uncontrollably. I had finally found the one willing to catch fire, side by side, while the world watched us burn.

Something about her was different that day. In an instant, she swallowed her regrets, choked back her past, and swore to make history every damn day. There I stood, struggling to make sense of the strength of a woman.

She persisted when I resisted. And thank God for that. Because the number of storms I needed to go through before appreciating the way the wind whipped through her hair was one to many. Now, I'd move mountains to make her mine. Rain or shine.

Don't fall in love with me. Not unless you're ready for a God damn fight. I don't do fragility, or friction and fairy tales. I want you to be irrational because I'm irrational. Be bold. Speak your mind. I want your wildfires and obscenities. I want your passion and priorities. Protect what's yours. I'll defend what's ours. Let us fight against routines and bad habits, and anything typical. And don't you dare quit. Not on us, not on yourself. God help the person who threatens us. Forgive me when I let you down, but don't overlook it, or allow it. We're all insecure about something. Show me yours. We're all terrified sometimes. Turn to me. People come in and out of my life so often and easily that I just look for a love that stays. I don't mind your blemishes or scars, I have a few of my own. Don't be another flash in the pan. Falling for me will be easy. Staying with me will be impossible. But you deserve a love that most people don't believe in anymore.

Her taste still teased my tongue, and her touch tipped my fingers. Her smile licked my lips, and her heart beat my own. So I tugged on her sheets, like it was a cape. To me, she was a God damned super hero, and underneath, was everything I need. Her super powers on top of me.

A good novel, one which entices the author as much as it beckons the reader.

Dear sir, Mr. B.J. Thing... er... we the people of Britain are fed up with being bombed. We had enough of it last time with old Hitler so will you just leave us in peace, you live your life and we'll live ours, hope you are well... please don't drop any bombs. Yours sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. J. Bloggs

It's not about who loves her. It's about how you love her. You have to learn the difference between what she says, and what she means. Don't just make her laugh. Try and understand why she smiles. Plenty have told her she's beautiful, but can you make her feel that way too? There's a difference, see. Compliments might cage her, while empowerment sets her free. My God, what matters to her is not just who flatters her. There's a language to her love you'll need to learn. Speak it true, and I promise you, the best of her, is what you'll earn.

She played hard to get, because she was. And it wasn't a game to her to play. She was hard to get, and hard to get. Don't you understand? She was the one that got away. Either way, if she stayed or strayed, you were better for loving her. And if she loved you back, you learned to breathe easy. Like the air in your world was lighter with her in it. We all know that one we will always look back on and wonder "What if?"....She's hard to get, harder to keep, and hardest to forget.

When I asked her if she was afraid to fall in love, she damn near doubled over. "Afraid? My heart has been through hell and back. Yet it never quits, refuses to rest, gives without asking in return, and is deeper than the deepest sea. It's love, my dear, that should fear me." That night my heart was signed, by my one of a kind.

The Beauties” by Anton Chekhov, “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger, “Brownies” or “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both by ZZ Packer, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel, “Fat” by Raymond Carver, “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway.

Ce mot d'amour était sublime d'enfantillage. Et, quelles que soient les passions que j'éprouve dans la suite, jamais ne sera plus possible l'émotion adorable de voir une fille de dix-neuf ans pleurer parce qu'elle se trouve trop vieille.

She'll let you put her in her place, But she won't stand for anything worse than first.

The truth about most people: they will never accept you as you are. You'll need to change. And I'm begging you, change. But only for yourself, and even if that means by yourself. Never bend for them. Don't calm your heart, don't scale back these dreams. Stay strange, lost your mind, finger fuck the rules, burn bridges if you must, and follow your insanity. Feel everything, it's telling you something. People will love you in bits and pieces, and hate you just the same. You'll always be too much for some, and not enough for others. They will never believe in you, as much as you do. And understand that you will never be a success in the eyes of a failure. There's a magic in you that most others can't believe in, simply because they haven't made sense of themselves. But you're magic, still. You've been that way all along. And even if the world changed everything in you, that much would always be true.

–Alors tu t’es bien amusée ? –Comme ça. –T’as vu le métro ? –Non. –Alors, qu’est-ce que t’as fait ? –J’ai vieilli

Something about the Judge Raymond Randolph murder case. Something was wrong. He could feel it deep in his bones, like a sliver buried under the skin.

Revival without discipleship is a dangerous thing.

But to call God “almighty” does cause problems for some. J.I. Packer says, “Men treat God’s sovereignty as a theme for controversy, but in Scripture it is a matter of worship.

From a biological perspective, making mistakes is critical to new learning

If this were Raymond Carver, you’d offer me some meager comfort and darkness would set in and all this would be over. But this . . . is feeling more like a novel to me after all. Emotionally, I mean.

Is Jesus just our message or is he also our model? In fact, we know now that nearly all urban persons come to Christ through relationships, not through media. The bigger the city, the higher this percentage seems to be.

Beauties” by Anton Chekhov, “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger, “Brownies” or “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both by ZZ Packer, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel, “Fat” by Raymond Carver, “Indian Camp

Ce matin, Marie est restée et je lui ai dit que nous déjeunerions ensemble. Je suis descendu pour acheter de la viande. En remontant, j'ai entendu une voix de femme dans la chambre de Raymond. Un peu après, le vieux Salamano a grondé son chien, nous avons entendu un bruit de semelles et de griffes sur les marches en bois de l'escalier et puis : « Salaud, charogne », ils sont sortis dans la rue. J'ai raconté à Marie l'histoire du vieux et elle a ri. Elle avait un de mes pyjamas dont elle avait retroussé les manches. Quand elle a ri, j'ai eu encore envie d'elle. Un moment après, elle m'a demandé si je l'aimais. Je lui ai ré-pondu que cela ne voulait rien dire, mais qu'il me semblait que non. Elle a eu l'air triste. Mais en préparant le déjeuner, et à propos de rien, elle a encore ri de telle façon que je l'ai embrassée. C'est à ce moment que les bruits d'une dispute ont éclaté chez Raymond.

If you’re stuck, reading helps: “The Beauties” by Anton Chekhov, “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger, “Brownies” or “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both by ZZ Packer, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel, “Fat” by Raymond Carver, “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway.

you’re stuck, reading helps: “The Beauties” by Anton Chekhov, “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger, “Brownies” or “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both by ZZ Packer, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel, “Fat” by Raymond Carver, “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway. We should

The most beautiful among us all seem to be slightly broken, women especially. The ones worth knowing are beyond repair. She’ll always be slightly off centered. A clock, never set perfectly, but you knew could still sing beautifully. And fools we are for attempting to fix her. Just read her, learn her, love her. Don’t try to make sense of her past, or dare predict her future. Who she was, is not who she is, and is certainly not who she would be. You’re not meant to understand her entirely. Because she’s not sure who she is exactly. Let her sing her song. Watch her dance wildly to it. It’s her time. Repairing that would only break her heart. And I’d rather be ripped apart from her than rip a part from her.

One challenge is the Peter Principle. Coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book of that name, the Peter Principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain being unable to earn further promotions.

Maya, If you’re stuck, reading helps: “The Beauties” by Anton Chekhov, “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger, “Brownies” or “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” both by ZZ Packer, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel, “Fat” by Raymond Carver, “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway. We should have them all downstairs. Just ask if you can’t find anything, though you know where everything is better than I. Love, Dad

The more I thought about my gloves and my yellowness, the more depressed I got, and I decided, while I was walking and all, to stop off and have a drink somewhere. I’d only had three drinks at Ernie’s, and I didn’t even finish the last one. One thing I have, it’s a terrific capacity. I can drink all night and not even show it, if I’m in the mood. Once, at the Whooton School, this other boy, Raymond Goldfarb, and I bought a pint of Scotch and drank it in the chapel one Saturday night, where nobody’d see us. He got stinking, but I hardly didn’t even show it. I just got very cool and nonchalant. I puked before I went to bed, but I didn’t really have to—I forced myself.

Untold numbers of readers of Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered have wished to understand more fully the relationship between Neihardt and Black Elk and the role that Neihardt played as Black Elk's amanuensis. They have also been curious to learn about Black Elk's life after the Wounded Knee massacre. How was it that a nineteenth-century Lakota mystic could live a full half of the twentieth century on the Pine Ridge Reservation in harmony with the encroaching white man's world? The Sixth Grandfather is presented in order to help readers answer these questions. The title of the book is doubly appropriate. Black Elk, in his great vision, saw himself as the "sixth grandfather," the spirit of the earth, the power to nurture and make grow. Symbolically, Black Elk's teachings, transmitted through Neihardt, have had a marvelous generative power: they have grown and blossomed and become an inspiration for millions, Indians and non-Indians alike. Through Neihardt's writings, the sacred tree of Black Elk's vision has truly conic to bloom.

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eves still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

Despite such secular acclaim, the book put Black Elk in an awkward position in relation to the Catholic Church. His reputation on the reservation was built as a Catholic catechist, not as a native religious leader. The Jesuit priests at Holy Rosary Mission were shocked and horrified at the suggestion that one of their most valued catechists still harbored beliefs in the old Indian religion. For them to accept Black Elk Speaks at face value necessarily called into question the genuineness of their success in converting the Lakotas to Catholicism. Rather than accept the book as a true representation of Black Elk, they blamed Neihardt for telling only part of Black Elk's story. The priests objected most strongly to the epilogue portraying Black Elk as a believing, practicing "pagan," praying to the six grandfathers when he knew well that the Christian God was the only source of salvation. Ben Black Elk told the missionaries, no doubt truthfully, that he and his father had not realized that Neihardt

intended to include the prayer on Harney Peak in the book. Although the old man was embarrassed in front of the priests who had been his confessors and advisors for many years, he never denied the sincerity of his final appeal to the six grandfathers.87

Baker, Sharon L. Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You’ve Been Taught About God’s Wrath and Judgment. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010. *Batto, Bernard. Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1992. Bell, Rob. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2011. Brettler, Marc Zvi, Peter Enns, and Daniel Harrington, SJ. The Bible and the Believer: Reading the Bible Critically and Religiously. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. *Brown, Raymond E., and Francis J. Moloney S.D.B. An Introduction to the Gospel of John. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Brueggemann, Walter. An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009. *———. Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997.

Burridge, Richard A. Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. *Campbell, Anthony F., and Mark A. O’Brien. Unfolding the Deuteronomistic History: Origins, Upgrades, Present Text. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. *Clifford, Richard J. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1994. Dever, William G. Who Were the Israelites and Where Did They Come From? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. *Dillard, Raymond B. 2 Chronicles. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988. *Dunn, James D. G. The New Perspective on Paul. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Earl, Douglass S. The Joshua Delusion: Rethinking Genocide in the Bible. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011. Enns, Peter, and Jared Byas. Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book of the Bible. Colorado Springs: Patheos Press, 2012. Enns, Peter. Ecclesiastes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. ———. Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker,

Our duty as educators is to protect and promote public conversations about matters of educational justice, equity, and access within a lightning‐fast and often misleading environment of powerful, politically motivated, and unsubstantiated opinions.

The famous literary expert Raymond Scott is not just an authority on Shakespearean literature, my friend Raymond is a great lover and fancy playboy as well.

J'aime mieux, murmura-t-elle, être malheureuse avec toi qu'heureuse avec lui.

The first Board of Commissioners were F. Law Olmsted, J. D. Whitney, William Ashburner, I. W. Raymond, E. S. Holden, Alexander Deering, George W. Coulter, and Galen Clark.

Let me interpolate by saying that, as I understand an economy, its ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods. This is the goal. This is the object of everything that we are working at: to produce things for consumers.

In most hierarchies, super-competence is more objectionable than incompetence.

I take a deep breath. I can do this. It won’t be like when I tried confessing to Raymond at last year’s school fair and got caught in the cotton candy machine’s vicious pink web. Or, like freshman year, when I gave Toby a valentine that caught on fire for no reason at all. I might always forget exactly what the boy I dream about every night looks like the moment I wake up, but this time is different.

On the contrary, the Trinity always experienced loving relationships among themselves and created the world out of the overflow-the desire to share the grace with Adam and creation. That's a fundamentally different motive for God's creation.

William McLoughlin's study of the religious awakenings in American history4 points out that true revival has profound social consequences.

Judge Raymond J. Brassard was a Republican appointee and not considered particularly favorable to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Elle secoua la tête : « J’aime mieux, murmura-t-elle, être malheureuse avec toi qu’heureuse avec lui. » Voilà de ces mots d’amour qui ne veulent rien dire, et que l’on a honte de rapporter, mais qui, prononcés par la bouche aimée, vous enivrent. Je crus même comprendre la phrase de Marthe. Pourtant que signifiait-elle au juste ? Peut-on être heureux avec quelqu’un qu’on aime pas ?

Mais il me vexait que, dans une lettre de rupture, Marthe ne me parlât pas de suicide. Je l'accusai de froideur. Je trouvai sa lettre indigne d'une explication. Car moi, dans une situation analogue, sans penser au suicide, j'aurais cru, par convenance, en devoir menacer Marthe. Trace indélébile de l'âge et du collège: je croyais certains mensonges commandés par le code passionnel.

The author's postscript relating the ceremony on Harney Peak does little to buoy hope. There the old man prayed that the sacred tree might bloom again and the people find their way back to the sacred hoop and the good red road. He cried out, "O make my people live!"-and in reply a low rumble of thunder sounded, and a drizzle of rain fell from a sky that shortly before had been cloudless. Whether this sign was a hopeful one or, more likely, a tragic recognition of the power that Black Elk had been given but failed to use is one of the dynamic issues that makes the book a literary success. Black Elk Speaks can be best characterized as an elegy, the commemoration of a man who has failed in his life's work, as well as of a people whose way of life has passed.

I'm not out to make everybody happy. I'm out to make the right people happy.

Even the simplest of cottages often picked up the decorative elements of the more formal styles as is evident in this Italianate cottage. Almost square, the one-story frame cottage at 543 Coombs duplicates the symmetry of the larger Italianates. Note also its low-pitched roof and projecting eaves supported by elaborate pierced and scrolled brackets. The molded window hoods supported by brackets top tall, narrow sash windows. The front porch could grace a much larger house with its molded cornice, columns, brackets, pierced arches, and turned balusters. In 1908, auctioneer J.T. Gamble lived

like to thank the many people who have assisted and supported me in this work. First, thanks to the Johns Hopkins University Press and its editors, who have believed in me from the fi rst: thanks to Anders Richter, who shepherded me through the publication of the fi rst edition, and to Jacqueline Wehmueller, who inherited me from Andy after his retirement and encouraged me to write a second and now a third edition of the book. She has been a constant and steadfast source of inspiration and support for this and many other projects. Immeasurable thanks is owed to my teachers and mentors at Johns Hopkins, Paul R. McHugh and J. Raymond DePaulo, and to my psychiatric colleagues (from whom I never stop learning), especially Jimmy Potash, Melvin McInnis, Dean MacKinnon, Jennifer Payne, John Lipsey, and Karen Swartz. Thanks to Trish Caruana, LCSW, and Sharon Estabrook, OTR, for teaching me the extraordinary importance of their respective disciplines, clinical social work and occupational therapy, to the comprehensive treatment of persons with mood disorders. And thanks, of course, to my partner, Jay Allen Rubin, for much more than I could ever put into words. x ■ pre face

  Now let us thank the Eternal Power: convinced   That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction,—   That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour   Serves but to brighten all our future days. Barbarossa, Act v. Sc. 3. J. BROWN.

Thus the six grandfathers were the six directions. Black Elk became the sixth grandfather, the spirit of the "below" direction, the earth, the place where mankind lives, the source of human life. By becoming the sixth grandfather through the vision experience, Black Elk was identified as the spirit of all mankind. And the vision foreshadowed his life as a holy nman-as thinker, healer, teacher.

Challenge occurs when we have to apply current knowledge or skills to situations that require extension or development of them.

we each construct our own reality by interpreting the external world on the basis of our unique experiences with it and our beliefs about those experiences.

From a biological perspective, motivation is a process that “determines how much energy and attention the brain and body assign to a given stimulus—whether it’s a thought coming in or a situation that confronts one

W. Irving points out that "Your true dull minds are generally preferred for public employ, and especially promoted to city honors." He did not realize that a mind may well be bright enough for a subordinate position, yet appear dull when promoted to prominence, just as a candle is all very well to light a dinner table, but proves inadequate if placed on a lamppost to illuminate a street corner.

W. Irving points out that "Your true dull minds are generally preferred for public employ, and especially promoted to city honors." He did not realize that a mind may well be bright enough for a subordinate position, yet appear full when promoted to prominence, just as a candle is all very well to light a dinner table, but proves inadequate if placed on a lamppost to illuminate a street corner.

Écriture Si ma plume se faisait vaine je l'internerais Je me ferais fort de briser sa vindicte Je revitaliserais mes mots, je mémoriserais Ma poésie dans des apprêts fantômes Si ma muse oublieuse de son inspiration Folâtrerait dans l'abandon, je la cinglerais De mon verbe acerbe, dérangerais ses amours J'hypothéquerais sa verve et son attention Si les mots venaient à manquer, défaillants Je rééditerais impassible les vieux, les anciens Combattants des campagnes lunaires, astronautes Infiltrant l'espace sidéral de la muse Calliope Si ma poésie se lisait à l'envers, à l'endroit Je réfléchirais mes vers dans un miroir octogone Je les lirai à l'insu d'une bougie qui s'étiole. (p. 45)

Le livre Ce livre je l'ai aimé sans esclandre Obscures paroles que j'ai lues sans les entendre Les mots, si compliqués, m'aspiraient, fait étrange Suis-je assez sotte ! Il s'avère que le titre dérangeait Ce livre je l'ai aimé imprudemment Mon esprit en léthargie réintégra la vie J'ai dû m'éprendre des mots lancés rigoureusement Par inadvertance, j'en compris le sens, ravie Ce livre je l'ai aimé absolument J'abordai un univers, celui de Dante Pages ensorcelantes, je vivais dangereusement Par la magie de ces écrits, je devins savante Mon livre ! J'aurais prouvé mon inaltérable fidélité Je me rassure en te scrutant Sorcier d'un âge fatigué tu m'a déniaisée Depuis, j'écris un peu, beaucoup, maladroitement. (p. 51)

Like the Hindu caste system, the black-white distinction in the United States has supplied a social hierarchy determined at birth, and arguably immutable, even by achievement,” wrote the legal scholars Raymond T. Diamond and Robert J. Cottrol. “Blacks became like a group of American untouchables, ritually separated from the rest of the population.

It seems, therefore, that even somewhat halting and imperfect steps towards the goal of more productive- and enormously more profitable- fishing cannot but be beneficial almost immediately. But any kind of regulation, however simple or limited, must inevitably involve the sacrifice, at some level, of part of the competitive element which characterises fishing as a means of utilising a natural resource, and its replacement by a measure of cooperation. In the early stages of regulation the obligation will fall primarily on the larger units within the fishing industries, and especially on the industries of each nation in their attitude towards one another's activities. Eventually, if regulation is to become perfected so that the maximum benefits are obtained, the greater will be the demand on the fisherman himself to bring about some modification of his individualistic and competitive approach to his problem of making a livelihood.

tis the curse of service, Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first.

In time I saw that all such cases had a common feature. The employee had been promoted from a position of competence to a position of incompetence. I saw that, sooner or later, this could happen to every employee in every hierarchy.

For each individual, for you, for me, the final promotion is from a level of competence to a level of incompetence.

The obsessive feeling that a person who pushes harder than average deserves to advance farther and faster than average. This feeling, of course, has no scientific basis: it is simply a moralistic delusion

In the 1950s, at the very beginning of the integration process, Raymond Aron wrote that “the European idea is empty, it has neither the transcendence of messianic ideologies nor the immanence of concrete patriotism.” Aron was half right. The idea of Europe did not evoke emotional commitment. It did not stir people’s hearts as nations sometimes had done. It was not something for which many would have been willing to give their lives. But the European idea was not empty—or rather, it only seemed empty when compared to the traditional idea of the nation. The European idea was full, not of national enthusiasm and patriotic passion, but of a widespread commitment to escape the destructive antagonisms of the past..

J'entends rire les morts quand on parle de dieux.

NOVELS Coetzee, J.M. Disgrace. Exley, Frederick. A Fan's Notes. Kohler, Sheila. One Girl. Miller, Henry. Tropic of Cancer. Salter, James. Light Years, A Sport and a Pastime. Stone, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Welch, James. The Death of Jim Loney. Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. White, Edmund. The Beautiful Room Is Empty. SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS Bloom, Amy. Come to Me. Cameron, Peter. The Half You Don't Know. Carver, Raymond. Where I'm Calling From. Cheever, John. The Stories of John Cheever. Gaitskill, Mary. Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To. Houston, Pam. Cowboys Are My Weakness. Johnson, Denis. Jesus' Son. Nugent, Beth. City of Boys. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. O'Connor, Flannery. The Complete Stories. Paley, Grace. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. Perrotta, Tom. Bad Haircut. White, Edmund. Skinned Alive. Yates, Richard. Liars in Love.

She carried her own seasons with her, and you have to accept that winter would always be one of them. But so was spring. She’d be back.

Somewhere between what she’d survived and who she was becoming was exactly where she was meant to be.

The most perfect things can’t seem to stay in one place for too long. The moon shines in stages, the tide must subside, and eventually, the sun will rise. I guess love was a trust thing. And if eyes were the windows to the soul, hers were the only ones I cared to know. She believed in love because she believed in herself.

She had been through her own hells and was made stronger by its fires. Being forged from a few failures yields a different type of strength— the type which reminds you you can survive anything and are smart enough to not make the same mistakes twice. She was nothing, if not a force.