“Breaking one bond was not the end; it was the beginning. It wasn’t a thread that had snapped. The entire net of relationships built on the assumption of “ever after” had collapsed. As I kept falling down an abyss, it was not my life that flashed in front of me but an enactment of all my fears.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
“My mom was a devoted wife and mother. The first up every morning, she would don her very practical apron, which was usually made out of floral feed-sack material and went over her head and buttoned or tied behind her back. She'd prepare lunches for my five sisters and me, and one for Dad, too...
About three o'clock in the afternoon, Mom would straighten the house, vacuuming and dusting, and by the time we walked in from school, she'd be in the kitchen with her apron on, preparing the evening meal. Every dinner was complete with meat, potatoes, salad, two vegetables, and bread and butter. And the dining table was always set with a vase of fresh flowers or green cuttings.
When dinner was just about ready, she'd go freshen up, changing clothes and putting on makeup. When one of my sisters once asked her how come she "got ready" and changed clothes right before dinner, Mom smiled and said, "Because my husband is coming home." When our father walked into the house from work, he was greeted with a delicious home-cooked meal on the table and Mom, all decked out in a fresh, pretty apron. [Dick Amman]”
Source: The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort
“When dinner was just about ready, [Mother] would go freshen up, changing clothes and putting on makeup. When one of my sisters once asked her how come she "got ready" and changed clothes right before dinner, Mom smiled and said, "Because my husband is coming home." [Dick Amman]”
Source: The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort
“Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe - comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy.”
Source: Beartown
“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There is too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
“I grieved for what was yet to come. But I grieved more for what I had lost: myself. I may not have grown in inches as my grandmother had almost a century ago, but I had certainly allowed marriage to change me in fundamental ways.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
“Free from the constraints and contortions that married life had demanded of me, I was now uncoiling, shrugging off the restraints forced by society and my own limited beliefs.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
“Dates marked on a calendar are like babies: innocent and untainted. When we assign significance to one particular date—a wedding day for instance—we expand its notional value, even if it is precious only to us. The value of a day (or a baby) increases in proportion to our attachment to it.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
“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.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery
“The story of my marriage and motherhood is not unusual: a life defined by a name, a name conferred by someone other than me. Most women I knew had taken on their husband’s name either at the time of the wedding or after the birth of their children. A few had retained their maiden name, with a handful agonizing over the decision.”
Source: Rewriting My Happily Ever After: A Memoir of Divorce and Discovery