Home > Work > How Not to Let Go (Belhaven, #2)
1 " To love someone is to love the process of them, not just the way they are but the way they grow. To witness a human's personal evolution is to worship at the altar of their true selfhood. And all you have to do is listen well. Listen to what they say, what they don't say, and the context in which they're saying it. Keep listening. And then listen some more. "
― Emily Foster , How Not to Let Go (Belhaven, #2)
2 " And I realized that until we have healed, pain is how we bear loss in our bodies. Sometimes we mistake the pain for love, so we hold on to it, we stay there in the darkness, in the valley. Or we think that if it doesn't hurt, it isn't love. But when we allow ourselves to move through it and out of it...eventually we heal. And only when we experience the entire journey, through the suffering to wholeness, do we know the full scope of love. "
3 " What do you think I ought to do?” he asks.“I don’t know,” I say. “You’ll do what your heart tells you is right.”“That’s why I’m asking you,” he whispers. "
4 " Annie, do you believe in god?” “Of course not,” she answers. “Do you?” “No. No, not really.” She looks at me. “But a little bit?” “It’s not that I believe in god,” I say, struggling to find the next hold. I speak quietly, not letting the words carry beyond our two bodies. “It’s that I wanted to. I grew up in the benignant arms of the Church of England, but it wasn’t the bland ritual that tempted me ever, it was the notion that there was something beyond humanity, a purpose and a meaning greater than . . .” I stop, embarrassed by this bit of arrogance from my adolescent self. "