“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.” ―Jenny Lawson
Quotes
We Cannot Even Imagine…
“We cannot even imagine the complex forces behind every event that occurs in our lives. You never know how and when any life experience will reappear. You never know when a coincidence will lead to the opportunity of a lifetime.” ―Deepak Chopra
The More Stress You Accumulate…
“The more stress you accumulate, the heavier it becomes. If you accumulate too much, the weight of carrying it can break you.” ―Oscar Auliq-Ice
Rules For Happiness
“Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” ―Immanuel Kant
…When We Find Love
“I think sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we’re imagining it. Because it is the most painful kind of hope there is.” ―Rae Carson
Love Is The Kind of Thing
“Love is the kind of thing that’s already happening by the time you notice it, that’s how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn’t change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types — love where there’s an end in sight and love where there isn’t.” ―Banana Yoshimoto
Love Is Never Supposed To Hurt
“Love is never supposed to hurt. Love is supposed to heal, to be your haven from misery, to make living fucking worthwhile.” ―Mia Asher
I Fell In Love With Him
“I fell in love with him. But I don’t just stay with him by default, as if there’s no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.” ―Veronica Roth
Do Not Go…
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emotions, In My Experience
“Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, “The happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “The disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “Intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members.” connects with “The hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” I’d like to have a word for “The sadness inspired by failing restaurants,”, as well as for “The excitement of getting a room with a minibar.” I’ve never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I’ve entered my story, I need them more than ever. ” ―Jeffrey Eugenides
