“Sometimes you’ve resigned yourself..”

“Sometimes you’ve resigned yourself to living your life in the shadow of what might have been.  Looking up at happiness from some low place.  You’ve finally accepted that your life isn’t on the unbroken upward trajectory it feels like it’ll be when you’re a kid, when you assume every year willbe better than the one before.  You’ve said to yourself, This is all there is for me, and then something, someone, comes along and says, Hold on,there’s more.  

Maybe life isn’t about avoiding pain at all costs.  Maybe it’s about having one or two people who have signed up for the messy job of being your salvation, who make your life bigger.”

- Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

"From watching my parents I think being married or being with someone else in any kind of real way takes a certain amount of bravery, and it's not something I'm positive I have in me.  To pluck your heart from your chest that way and hand it to someone, unprotected, and wait to see how gently they'll stitch it back in for you, or not - to wake up all those days you're the crappiest version of yourself and face the person who knows you best, morning after morning, year after year."
-Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert