Pushed To The Limit Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Pushed To The Limit. Here they are! All 100 of them:

I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me.
Katie McGarry (Take Me On (Pushing the Limits, #4))
The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see--the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived. For people like me and Echo, our souls contained more scar tissue than life.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I love you enough to never make you choose.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
It doesn't get better," I said. "The pain. The wounds scab over and you don't always feel like a knife is slashing through you. But when you least expect it, the pain flashes to remind you you'll never be the same.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Luke used to give me butterflies. Noah spawned mutant pterodactyls.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Because growing up means making tough choices, and doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily mean doing the thing that feels good.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I saw the world in black and white instead of the vibrant colours and shades I knew existed.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Her eyes met mine again. “So what does this mean for us?” I lowered my forehead to hers. “It means you’re mine.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted. A shy smile tugged at her lips and at my heart. Fuck me and the rest of the world, I was in love.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
Sometimes life happens.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self imposed limits.
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
I've already lost a piece of my mind. I can't trust you with what's left.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Are you ready to take the ACT on Saturday?" my father asked. Did chickens enjoy being put on trucks labeled KFC? "Sure.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Sometimes when you see the line, you think it's a good idea to cross it--until you do.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.
Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion)
If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential
Ray Dalio (Principles: Life and Work)
I bet he fucks like he drives— a little reckless, pushing all the limits, and in it until the very last lap.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
That must be love: when everything else in the world could implode and you wouldn't care as long as you had that one person standing beside you.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
We’d read about sirens in English this fall; Greek mythology bullshit about women so beautiful, their voices so enchanting, that men did anything for them. Turned out that mythology crap was real because every time I saw her, I lost my mind.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
I watched you battle against the worst memory of your life and I watched you win. Make no mistake, Echo. I battled right beside you.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before... to test yout limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to stay tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossum.
Anaïs Nin
It's like I have this large black hole in my brain and it's sucking the life out of me. The answers are in there so I sit for hours and stare. No matter how hard and long I look, I only see darkness.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
How many more of us are faking the facade? How many more of us are pretending to be something we're not? Even better, how many of us will have the courage to be ourselves regardless of what others think?
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
If you’re scared, tell me. If you need to cry and scream, then do it. And you sure as hell don’t walk away from us because you think it would be better for me. Here’s the reality, Echo: I want to be by your side. If you want to go to the mall stark naked so you can show the world your scars, then let me hold your hand. If you want to see your mom, then tell me that too. I may not always understand, but damn, baby, I’ll try.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Wrapping my arms around her, I walked her backward into the brick. “Tell me you chose me, Echo.” She licked her lips. Those green eyes smoldered, calling me to her. “I chose you.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I must have killed a lot of cows in a past life for Karma to hate me this much.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
You're a lot like that bird in the barn. You're so scared that you're going to be caged in forever you can't see the way out. You smack yourself against the wall again and again and again. The door is open, Beth. Stop running in circles and walk out.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Silence. I hate silence. Silence means thinking and thinking means judgement.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Not sure how I felt about Antonio and Echo, I linked my fingers with hers. Antonio cocked a surprised eyebrow. Damn straight, bro. I just marked my territory.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Just that dwelling and planning is bullshit, you dwell on the past, you can’t move forward. Spend too much time planning for the future and you just push yourself backwards, or you stay stagnant in the same place all your life. Live in the moment, where everything is just right, take your time and limit your bad memories and you’ll get wherever it is you’re going a lot faster and with less bumps in the road along the way.
J.A. Redmerski (The Edge of Never (The Edge of Never, #1))
I like you. I. Like. You. I'll admit you're annoying. Sometimes you agitate me to the brink of insanity, but you can throw it back at me like no one else. When you laugh, I want to laugh. When you smile, I want to smile. Hell, I want to be the one to make you smile.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Emotions is evil. People who make me feel are worse. I take comfort in the stone inside of me. If I don't feel, I don't hurt.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Baby, you’ve got enough strength and tenacity to take down drug dealers. You’ll be fine.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I wrote about the person I love most, my older brother, Noah. We don't live together so I wrote what I imagine he does when we're not together." "And what is that?" prodded the stout man. "He's a superhero who saves people in danger, because he saved me and my brother from dying in a fire a couple of years ago. Noah is better than Batman." The crowd chuckled. "I love you, too, lil'bro.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Fabulous. This night had shifted from the best to bad to Saw in record time.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
This overwhelming, encompassing feeling is love. It's not perfect and it's messy as hell. And it's exactly what I need.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
It's in those quiet little towns, at the edge of the world, that you will find the salt of the earth people who make you feel right at home.
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
A warm, tickling touch crashed me back to earth. Maybe it sent me straight to heaven. Either way, it dragged me out of hell.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I can’t give you the world, Rachel, but I’ll give you all I got.
Katie McGarry (Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3))
Life's trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are.” ~ Aaron Lauritsen, ‘100 Days Drive
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
You're falling for me like I'm falling for you. That's why you're pushing me so hard.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
To know a thing well, know its limits; Only when pushed beyond its tolerance will its true nature be seen. -The Amtal Rule
Frank Herbert (Children of Dune (Dune #3))
Lucien had been prepared to take me against my will. Fae males were territorial, dominant, arrogant—but the ones in the Spring Court … something had festered in their training. Because I knew—deep in my bones—that Cassian might push and test my limits, but the moment I said no, he’d back off. And I knew that if … that if I had been wasting away and Rhys had done nothing to stop it, Cassian or Azriel would have pulled me out. They would have taken me somewhere—wherever I needed to be—and dealt with Rhys later. But Rhys … Rhys would never have not seen what was happening to me; would never have been so misguided and arrogant and self-absorbed. He’d known what Ianthe was from the moment he met her. And he’d understood what it was like to be a prisoner, and helpless, and to struggle—every day—with the horrors of both.
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
We all have a limit. What we’re willing to put up with before we break. When I married your father, I knew exactly what my limit was. But slowly . . . with every incident . . . my limit was pushed a little more. And a little more. The first time your father hit me, he was immediately sorry. He swore it would never happen again. The second time he hit me, he was even more sorry. The third time it happened, it was more than a hit. It was a beating. And every single time, I took him back. But the fourth time, it was only a slap. And when that happened, I felt relieved. I remember thinking, ‘At least he didn’t beat me this time. This wasn’t so bad.
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us #1))
I know crazy when I see it." The moment the words flew out of my mouth I regretted them. Sometimes when you see the line, you think it's a good idea to cross it--until you do.~Noah
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Come here, baby." And with my words, Echo leaned into me soft, pliant, broken. "You're not alone," I whispered into her hair as I cradled her in my arms. "You're not alone, because you have me." And I love you, more than you could ever know
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Screw what Mom and Dad think. Screw the rest of the town. Screw perfection. This girl is mine.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
I don’t want to be without you. I like who I am with you, and I don’t want to go back to who I was before.” “I love you, Rachel. So this will work. No matter what or who stands in our way.
Katie McGarry (Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3))
You can ignore me, Rachel, and you can try to treat me as a friend, but none of that will erase the fact that I think about kissing you every second I’m awake and dream at night of my hands on your body. And it sure as hell won’t erase that I’m terrified by how much I like you.
Katie McGarry (Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3))
There are edges around the black and every now and then a flash of color streaks out of the gray. But I can never really grasp any of the slivers of memories that emerge.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
You’ll never know your limits until you push yourself to them.
K. Bromberg (Driven (Driven, #1))
A cold wind swept across the patio, causing me to shiver. Noah shrugged off his black leather jacket and tossed it around my shoulders. "How are you going to tutor me if you get fucking pneumonia?" I cocked an eyebrow. What an odd combination of romantic gesture and horribly crude wording.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
My fingers lightly trace her arm and I swear she presses closer to me. I'd love to kiss her right now. Not the type of kiss that makes her body come alive. The type of kiss that shows her how much I care - the type that involves my soul.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Wow. I thought I was the only person at this school faking every moment.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
True friends don't come with conditions.
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
I've got you. I swear to God, I've got you," said Noah. "Stay with me, Echo." I wanted to. I wanted to stay with him, but the shouting and screams and glass breaking in my mind grew louder. "Make it stop." He tightened his grip on my arms. "Fight, Echo! You've got to fucking fight. Come on, baby. You're safe.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I hold the bottle out into the rain and watch as the steady flow slowly fills it. When there is enough, enough that Beth can clearly see, I close the bottle and hand it to her. She raises a skeptical eyebrow, but accepts the bottle. "It's our rain Beth." Her head barely shakes to show her confusion while I rub the back of my neck and search for my courage. "I told you I loved you in this rain and when you doubt my words, I want you to look at this bottle.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Here's the thing- I love you and I love her, but I swear to God I'll kick your ass if you hurt her.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
I loved fast driving.Isaiah and I had drag raced all last summer. What I didn't love was a middle-aged nut job who couldn't steer straight.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
You know a lot about math," I said. You know a lot about math? What type of statement was that? Right along the lines of "Hey, you have hair and it's red and curly." Real smooth.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Good isn't my thing but Sawyer's important to me. Please remember I've got my limits and you studying my mouth like you want a taste is pushing me dangerously close to the edge of those limits.
Abbi Glines
Jocks usually aren't smart. Their muscles feast on their brains.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Trust. Why not ask me to do something easier, like prove the existence of God? Even God had given up on me.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I won't let you go." I blink. As if he could stop me. "You won't let me go." "No, I won't let you go. You're mine and I don't lose.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Without struggle, success has no value.
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
My siren had sung to me for way too long, capturing my heart, tempting me with her body, driving me slowly insane. Now, I expected her to pay up.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Just like she’d said, she’d gone back to her life and, in theory, I’d gone back to mine. Problem? I didn’t like mine, not without her. - Noah
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
You could push people away, past their limits, even accidentally, and then it was just too late to get them back
Laura Moriarty (The Rest of Her Life)
Because the only way anyone will ever be okay with me is if they love me. Really love me enough to not care that I’m damaged.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Beth feels likes this storm. Constant and persistent as a whole, but the more I get close and try to clutch the individual drops of rain, the more the water falls out of my hands.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
Don’t think of it as falling. Think of it as jumping- with me.” 
“How is jumping better?” 
“Falling happens. Jumping you choose.
Katie McGarry (Take Me On (Pushing the Limits, #4))
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
Beth had been both wrong and right. Echo couldn’t hurt anyone, especially when she seemed so breakable herself. But the need I felt to be the one to keep the world from shattering her only confirmed Beth’s theory. I was falling for her and I was fucked.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Think she could have told us we were going to fight the NFL?" "Would that have stopped you?" "No" "Me either." The laughter between the two of us echoed into the night.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
From this point forward, you don’t even know how to quit in life.” ~ Aaron Lauritsen, ‘100 Days Drive
Aaron Lauritsen
Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.
Brian Eno (A Year With Swollen Appendices)
This isn't me giving him a memory. This is me giving him my heart.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
I've fallen in love with him. I've done it. I've given him power over me.
Katie McGarry (Dare You To (Pushing the Limits, #2))
I added a fucked-up thought to another fucked-up thought and I created a pile of shit.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
When I’m with you, even my past seems like a bad dream,” he says. “I’ve sat on this hill a hundred times, and all I used to see were lights that represented places where I wasn’t wanted, where I never belonged. Now, when you aren’t with me, I look east and know one of those lights represents you, and I don’t feel alone anymore.
Katie McGarry (Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3))
My father was a strange combination of drill instructor and Alice’s white rabbit: he always had someplace important to go and enjoyed bossing everyone else around.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Please, Noah, I don't want to do this wrong. Tell me how to make you feel good." He shifted so that his body rested beside mine, his leg and arm still draped over me. I felt small under his warmth and strength. His chocolate-brown eyes softened. "Being with you feels good. Touching you-" he tucked a curl behind my ear. "-feels good. I have never wanted anyone like I want you. There's nothing you can do wrong when just breathing makes everything right.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
How could he love her when she’d destroyed so much?
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?"No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Noah's strong hand slipped over my wrist before he entwined his fingers with mine. The sensation of warm flesh against an area I allowed no one to see, much less touch, caused me to shiver. My eyes widened, realizing my mistake. This is what had freaked Ashley out. What had come over me? I never pulled up my sleeves. I spent all my time pulling them down. When had I become...comfortable?
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
I saw that to do exceptionally well you have to push your limits and that, if you push your limits, you will crash and it will hurt a lot. You will think you have failed—but that won’t be true unless you give up.
Ray Dalio (Principles: Life and Work)
Maybe this is what happens when you fall in love. On the outside a lighter is nothing amazing, but it holds all the ingredients that can create something wonderful. With a few pushes in the right direction, you can inspire something so brilliant that it pushes back the darkness.
Katie McGarry (Crash into You (Pushing the Limits, #3))
She wasn't a victim of fate, she was running her own risks, pushing beyond her own limits, experiencing things which, one day, in the silence of her heart, in the tedium of old age, she would remember almost with nostalgia - however absurd that might seem.
Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes)
She gave me the same smile I'd seen on Saturday night. That type of smile caused men to write those pussy-ass songs that Isaiah and I made fun of. I'd sit in Mrs. Collins's office for hours and wake my ass up early to go to calculus in order to see that smile again.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
In a lightning-fast move, he placed both of his hands on the brick wall, caging me with his body. He leaned toward me and my heart shifted into a gear I didn't know existed. His warm breath caressed my neck, melting my frozen skin. I tilted my head, waiting for the solid warmth of his body on mine. I could see his eyes again and those dark orbs screamed hunger . "I heard a rumor." "What's that?" I struggled to get out. "It's your birthday." Terrified speaking would break the spell, I licked my suddenly dry lips and nodded. "Happy birthday." Noah drew his lips closer to mine; that sweet musky smell overwhelmed my senses. I could almost taste his lips when he unexpectedly took a step back, inhaling deeply. The cold air slapped me into the land of sober.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
She revealed her pale face and sniffed again. One red curl clung to her tearstained cheek. My hand reached out to release it, but I hesitated a mere heartbeat away from her skin. I swear to God she quit breathing and even blinking, and for a second so did I. In a deliberate movement, I freed the curl.~Noah
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Beau's gaze made my cheeks flush. A pleased grin touched his lips and I suddenly wanted to know how those lips would feel pressed against mine. I couldn't take my eyes off them. Even when his smile vanished I continued staring at his mouth. "You're gonna have to stop doing that Ash," Beau whispered huskily and closed the space between us. His body was suddenly pressed against mine. I managed to shake my fascination with his lips and gaze up into his eyes. He was staring down at me with a hungry gleam I wasn't accustomed to seeing. But I liked it. I liked it a lot. "Ash, I'm trying real hard to be good. Good isn't my thing but Sawyers important to me. Please remember I've got limits and you studying my mouth like you want a taste is pushing me dangerously close to the edge of those limits.
Abbi Glines (The Vincent Boys (The Vincent Boys, #1))
Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.
William H. McRaven (Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World)
Being mortal is about the struggle to cope with the constraints of our biology, with the limits set by genes and cells and flesh and bone. Medical science has given us remarkable power to push against these limits, and the potential value of this power was a central reason I became a doctor. But again and again, I have seen the damage we in medicine do when we fail to acknowledge that such power is finite and always will be. We’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive. Those reasons matter not just at the end of life, or when debility comes, but all along the way. Whenever serious sickness or injury strikes and your body or mind breaks down, the vital questions are the same: What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes? What are your fears and what are your hopes? What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?
Atul Gawande (Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End)
We live in a world with a lot of insecure, jealous people. Some of them are our best friends. They are blood relatives. Failure terrifies them. So does our success. Because when we transcend what we once thought possible, push our limits, and become more, our light reflects off all the walls they’ve built up around them. Your light enables them to see the contours of their own prison, their own self-limitations. But if they are truly the great people you always believed them to be, their jealousy will evolve, and soon their imagination might hop its fence, and it will be their turn to change for the better.
David Goggins (Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds)
It's about personal development. It's about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit. It's about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else's idea of who you are and what you're capable of, that you no longer believe in limits. It's about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close. It's about being able to say with the last breath of your life “I used all my potential and all my talents and pushed myself to the limit. I could not have fought any harder.
Charlotte Eriksson (Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: in search for The Great Perhaps)
You scared the shit out of me last night, so forgive me if I don't want to hear fine as an answer." I rubbed my eyes, hoping it would keep the burning tears away. The warm water of the shower had finally calmed the tears, but the thought of Noah walking away brought them back. "What do you want to hear? That I'm exhausted? Terrified? Confused? That all I want to do is rest my head on your chest and sleep for hours, but that's not going to happen because you're leaving me?" "Yes," he said quickly, then just as quick said, "No. Everything but the last part." He paused. "Echo, how could you think I would leave you? How can you doubt how I feel?" "Because," I said as I felt the familiar twisting in my stomach. "You saw me lose it. You saw me almost go insane." The muscles in his shoulders visibly tensed. "I watched you battle against the worst memory of your life and I watched you win. Make no mistake, Echo. I battled right beside you. You need to find some trust in me ... in us." Noah inhaled and slowly let the air out. His stance softened and so did his voice. "If you're scared, tell me. If you need to cry and scream, then do it. And you sure as hell don't walk away from us because you think it would be better for me. Here's the reality, Echo: I want to be by your side. If you want to go to the mall stark naked so you can show the world your scars, then let me hold your hand. If you want to see your mom, then tell me that, too. I may not always understand, but damn, baby, I'll try.
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
Do you know about the spoons? Because you should. The Spoon Theory was created by a friend of mine, Christine Miserandino, to explain the limits you have when you live with chronic illness. Most healthy people have a seemingly infinite number of spoons at their disposal, each one representing the energy needed to do a task. You get up in the morning. That’s a spoon. You take a shower. That’s a spoon. You work, and play, and clean, and love, and hate, and that’s lots of damn spoons … but if you are young and healthy you still have spoons left over as you fall asleep and wait for the new supply of spoons to be delivered in the morning. But if you are sick or in pain, your exhaustion changes you and the number of spoons you have. Autoimmune disease or chronic pain like I have with my arthritis cuts down on your spoons. Depression or anxiety takes away even more. Maybe you only have six spoons to use that day. Sometimes you have even fewer. And you look at the things you need to do and realize that you don’t have enough spoons to do them all. If you clean the house you won’t have any spoons left to exercise. You can visit a friend but you won’t have enough spoons to drive yourself back home. You can accomplish everything a normal person does for hours but then you hit a wall and fall into bed thinking, “I wish I could stop breathing for an hour because it’s exhausting, all this inhaling and exhaling.” And then your husband sees you lying on the bed and raises his eyebrow seductively and you say, “No. I can’t have sex with you today because there aren’t enough spoons,” and he looks at you strangely because that sounds kinky, and not in a good way. And you know you should explain the Spoon Theory so he won’t get mad but you don’t have the energy to explain properly because you used your last spoon of the morning picking up his dry cleaning so instead you just defensively yell: “I SPENT ALL MY SPOONS ON YOUR LAUNDRY,” and he says, “What the … You can’t pay for dry cleaning with spoons. What is wrong with you?” Now you’re mad because this is his fault too but you’re too tired to fight out loud and so you have the argument in your mind, but it doesn’t go well because you’re too tired to defend yourself even in your head, and the critical internal voices take over and you’re too tired not to believe them. Then you get more depressed and the next day you wake up with even fewer spoons and so you try to make spoons out of caffeine and willpower but that never really works. The only thing that does work is realizing that your lack of spoons is not your fault, and to remind yourself of that fact over and over as you compare your fucked-up life to everyone else’s just-as-fucked-up-but-not-as-noticeably-to-outsiders lives. Really, the only people you should be comparing yourself to would be people who make you feel better by comparison. For instance, people who are in comas, because those people have no spoons at all and you don’t see anyone judging them. Personally, I always compare myself to Galileo because everyone knows he’s fantastic, but he has no spoons at all because he’s dead. So technically I’m better than Galileo because all I’ve done is take a shower and already I’ve accomplished more than him today. If we were having a competition I’d have beaten him in daily accomplishments every damn day of my life. But I’m not gloating because Galileo can’t control his current spoon supply any more than I can, and if Galileo couldn’t figure out how to keep his dwindling spoon supply I think it’s pretty unfair of me to judge myself for mine. I’ve learned to use my spoons wisely. To say no. To push myself, but not too hard. To try to enjoy the amazingness of life while teetering at the edge of terror and fatigue.
Jenny Lawson (Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things)