Home > Author > Mira T. Lee
1 " There was a word for this feeling, a Portuguese word he once learned from Lucia: Suadade. A vague longing for something that cannot exist again. Or perhaps never existed. "
― Mira T. Lee , Everything Here Is Beautiful
2 " But if she has to try too hard, perhaps its the universe's way of telling her this isn't to be. She doesn't believe in God, but she believes in a natural order, a higher directive, to be gleaned and mulled and acted upon. "
3 " querencia. It refers to that place in the ring where a bull feels strongest, safest, where it returns again and again to renew its strength. It’s the place we’re most comfortable, where we know who we are—where we feel our most authentic selves. "
4 " It fascinates her, to see a creature so busy in an act of creation. "
5 " Our mother might've said this: that immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild. "
6 " But the truth is, I'm still not sure how to tell what's real because when you're inside it, it's your reality, and if your own perception of the world isn't valid, then what is? "
7 " He’s already run the standard battery of questions, checked the check boxes, computed the data: hears voices = schizophrenic; too agitated = paranoid; too bright = manic; too moody = bipolar; and of course everyone knows a depressive, a suicidal, and if you’re all-around too unruly or obstructive or treatment resistant like a superbug, you get slapped with a personality disorder, too. In Crote Six, they said I “suffer” from schizoaffective disorder. That’s like the sampler plate of diagnoses, Best of Everything.But I don’t want to suffer. I want to live. "
8 " But I don’t want to suffer. I want to live. "
9 " How trite, but true: things change. Some all at once, some over a lifetime. "
10 " His desires remain inert, stuck in his heart. There is a word for this, a beautiful word that unfurls from the tongue: velleity. The weakest form of volition. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it. "
11 " love is just romantic way of explaining selflessness. "
12 " It seems silly, right? To be crying when everything's fine?'Well, why not, I figure, because if pain and tears were correlated, surely we would've all drowned by now. "
13 " I would cherish this luxury of finding contentment in the mundane, revel in it like a guilty pleasure. "
14 " In grief, the future seems impossible. "
15 " She missed New York, the sheer wattage of the place, its mighty abundance, its chaos, its kinetic energy a comfort somehow. "
16 " Shortly after we met, my mother died. That day at her funeral, he stood beside me, I knew he was my angel. "Why are you crying?" I said, watching him wipe his eyes. "Why you are not crying?" he said. "Your mother is dead. You are daughter with no mother. I love you. Of course I cry. "
17 " There was a word for this feeling; a Portuguese word he’d once learned from Lucia: saudade. A vague longing for something that cannot exist again, or perhaps never existed. "
18 " Our mother might’ve said this: that immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild. "
19 " But it was impossible to know the truth of another's interior life. Wasn't it? "
20 " We bond over our shared lukewarm enthusiasm. "
