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1 " My dad and I were in the kitchen, bent over the table while he tried to help me with my trigonometry homework—which, PS, addled my brain and has yet in life to reveal its practical application. "
― Lisa Unger , Under My Skin
2 " Is there anyone dearer than the children of people you love, especially when you don’t have your own? "
3 " There are so few silent spaces in this modern world; I have learned to relish the gift of insomnia. "
4 " know, some secret self, maybe it’s hiding in here. I read in one of those clutter clearing books that if you have sealed boxes in your life, then there are places within yourself you’re afraid to confront. "
5 " Here we free ourselves of distractions and try to be present in a world that conspires against it, "
6 " Are we not at least partially responsible for keeping ourselves safe, for lowering the risks in our lives?” he asks. “Locking doors, staying vigilant on the street? No one has a right to hurt us, even in a careless moment. But we have some—some—control over our level of risk.” “What are we talking about here? "
7 " The more you must assert your own reality to people, the crazier you seem. "
8 " Think of it as a little vacation your psyche takes when it has too much to handle. It's like a brownout, an overloading of circuits. Grief is a neurological event. "
9 " Grief and trauma, I remind myself, are not linear experiences. There are good days and bad ones, hard dips into despair, moments of light and hope. "
10 " It’s rare that someone doesn’t have a device clutched in his hand, isn’t staring at a screen all the time, relationships scrolling out in bubbles, text disembodied from voice and body, language pared down to barest meaning and, so, far less meaningful than actual conversation. How did we let them do it, separate us from each other while making us seem more connected than ever? How did we let them strip voice and touch and tone from our interactions? "
11 " Life is brutal. Naturally, it changes us. Why does that always come as a surprise? The galaxy is in a constant state of change, an explosion, ever moving outward. The planet—shifting, erupting, continents drifting, tsunamis, fires raging. Why do we try to stay the same? We can’t. "
12 " That’s how predators work. They give vulnerable people what they want or need, at first. They see a need, a desire, then they exploit, manipulate. When you’re hooked, that’s when the abuse starts. "