Home > Work > Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
101 " Writing rescued me again. This time by showing me the error (and humor) of seeing my life as a series of unfortunate events. "
― Ranjani Rao , Rewriting My Happily Ever After - A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
102 " There was a reason I was here. Not just for a break from my life but for a chance to reexamine it. "
103 " Being a planner doesn’t mean you can prepare for every possible scenario. "
104 " What do you do when you know that staying together is not easy and breaking up is even more difficult? "
105 " No one is prepared for the death of a parent, regardless of their age, health, or circumstances. Despite knowing that in the natural order of things your parents will leave the world before you, when death actually strikes, it can evoke many feelings beyond just grief. "
106 " My drive to procreate was not in response to the “when will we hear the good news?” type of questions from well-meaning friends and relatives. My longing was rooted in biology, hidden in a place where logic could not enter. I wanted a child, so I could be a mother, like her. I had seen the close bond she shared with her own mother, the friendship they shared, over and above their genetic connection. I wanted that. "
107 " The tsunami of my personal life had opened doors to new possibilities, and the crumbling of my life as I knew it had also broken down pretenses and barriers. I was once again a child, learning the ways of the world and how to be in it. I was once again a bundle of potential. This clean slate helped me rewrite my life and rewire new connections. "
108 " I accepted the imperfections and broken parts of myself and in the process learned to accept the beauty in my brokenness.Those who saw themselves reflected in the scattered pieces of my exposed life felt drawn, in spite of themselves, to play a part in my healing. Every friend I made in those years helped and healed me in myriad ways. "
109 " When you step off the beaten track, believe that you will be able to figure things out, find help from unexpected people, and most importantly, discover a reservoir of strength from the one source that you may not have considered—within yourself. "
110 " It is possible to walk the path we have been assigned with gratitude and forgiveness, courage and grace, humility and confidence, without falling apart. "
111 " Was the purpose of marriage procreation and the objective of a child’s life to hold on to each parent and keep them together through a combination of guilt, love, duty, and fear? "
112 " That first choice to leave an unhappy home had put me on a path strewn with more choices. Such was life. I had to accept it without looking for certainties. "
113 " Perhaps this is what people call the calm after the storm. The stuff of nightmares had come to pass and I was still alive. Now it was time to figure out the next steps. "
114 " I wept for the loss of my innocence, for the erosion of my faith in marriage, for the uncertainty of a future that depended solely on me. "
115 " Children have a remarkable ability to focus only on the good, and my child was no exception. "
116 " The truth was, I was not just afraid to be alone—I was unprepared. Even though I considered myself to be a free-thinking, independent individual, the strands of my life had always been enmeshed with others, something that was now being revealed to me in so many ways. "
117 " Every single person deals with their own special trauma—there is no hierarchy of pain that makes one’s suffering superior to that of others. We work from our own baselines, moving up in our understanding of how it all fits together. "
118 " I could reassemble my life by picking up only those pieces that I wanted. There were no guarantees, but there was peace in knowing that I would be able to face the next detour when it arrived. "
119 " Sometimes silence, more than words, can provide solutions. "
120 " Walking didn’t solve the problem, but it gave me a way to keep moving. Walking didn’t bring me to a destination, yet it gave me a way to negotiate the unknown. By holding space for my doubts, walking rescued me. "