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Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery QUOTES

Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery QUOTES

1 " Changing my narrative from one of complaint and dissatisfaction to a more positive one changed my mood, but it didn’t change all the other negatives that had tipped the balance of our marital life into dysfunction. Memories of good times were a reminder that life cannot be measured in purely black and white terms. The good and bad coexist in a tenuous equilibrium that is always in flux. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

2 " Shouldn’t there be more to a marriage? A clarity of purpose? A unity of vision? Team spirit? Common goals? A mutual love of things and each other? "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

3 " Instead of assembling the shattered pieces of my outer existence and inner reality into an incomprehensible structure, I learned to consciously create a new life. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

4 " When logic failed, I could choose to sit, close my eyes, and wait for guidance. Often, the solution would present itself without great struggle. The trick was to still the conscious mind and allow myself to be led. The answer usually flowed in the lower subconscious depths. If I let the ripples settle, the answer rose to the top. Things would unfold exactly as they needed to. And with that knowledge, the tentacles of stress around my neck and shoulders eased. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

5 " I needed to move, but I also needed time—time to find my new rhythm in this place and in this phase of life. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

6 " On the surface, all may seem calm, but things move forward exactly as they should, in tandem with an unseen natural rhythm. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

7 " No one cared that my little world had come crashing down. I could cry if I wanted to, but I still needed to hold up the small piece of it that depended on me. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

8 " In the three years since leaving my husband’s house, I had reclaimed parts of my authentic self. I had discovered the optimistic, trusting young woman that I had once been. She had remained dormant under layers of social conditioning but was still living and breathing deep inside. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

9 " In my new life I was chef, chauffeur, working woman, mother, daughter, neighbor, friend. Driving was just one of those things I had mastered. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

10 " Lighting the lamp is an art. A ritual. A discipline. Lighting the lamp became my anchor, and my focus, a deliberate act, and a resolution. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

11 " In the months since leaving my husband’s home, I asked this question of myself almost every day. So many of the labels that I had accepted over the years described relationships: daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law, mother. In the in-between phase of separation, was I still a wife? Could I check the box for “married” even though I didn’t (and did not want to) share a house with my estranged spouse? If I stripped off the labels that did not fit, who or what would I be? I was still a daughter, a sister, and a mother. Why then did I feel so bereft? "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

12 " Everything seemed possible but nothing seemed practical. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

13 " Life doesn’t always oblige by lining up events in the desired sequence. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

14 " Wedding vows, in any culture or language, speak of being together in sickness and in health. There is an assumption that you will receive love and thrive in the constant presence and support of the person with whom you are joined together in matrimony, no matter the weather or circumstance. By committing to spending your life together, you are promising one thing: to be around. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

15 " There was no social ritual to indicate that I had undergone a major life event. No forty days of rest as after childbirth, no forty days of mourning after death. There was no symbolic act of closure. Like the divorce, the absence of closure would be a unique cross for me to bear. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

16 " There’s always a choice and that choice begins with words—the stories people tell you and the stories you tell yourself. How you choose to build the foundation of your life will determine how well it stands up against the naysayers who try to trip you up. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

17 " The aftermath of a disaster brings a special kind of clarity about what is important and what is truly valuable. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

18 " Sometimes, wishes come true in strange ways. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

19 " Signs, they say, are everywhere if you care enough to look for them. Yet sometimes you need a person to point them out to you. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery

20 " For some reason, our paths had crossed. At that intersection, I had been the instrument through which an opportunity had been handed to them. What they made of it was their responsibility. Whether they squandered it or exchanged it for a better life had nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. "

― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery