“She hears the sadness in his voice, his words of condolence expressed in the same tone as those who attended [the] funeral, who arrived at the door bearing casseroles, cards and clichés. Each word spoken gently, as if the bereaved are so brittle they will shatter if someone speaks to them too quickly or too loudly.”
Source: The Engraver's Secret
“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
Source: How to win friends & influence people
“Be cheerful, even if you are going through hardships. One day, you will find victory.”
Source: A Manual for Victory
“Grief undulates, slips thin like air in and through heart, body, and soul. It moves unnamed, unknown. A fleeting thing that is, for better or worse, forever here to stay.
What this book does not do—and what I could never do—is attempt to put a definitive grasp on grief. Grief cannot be quantified; it swells and looms large, only to shrivel and hide when sought out and sized. Grief is one thing to one person and presents a whole new face to another. It is emotion and embodied; it is expressed and it emits. It is body, spirit, mind, and soul. Hidden and seen. Felt and perceived.
It is no one thing, for it is everything and everywhere all at once. It is in and around me. And—whether you feel it, fight it, or fear it—grief is in and around you too.”
Source: Matter of Little Losses: Finding Grace to Grieve the Big (and Small) Things
“Grief comes to us in all shapes, knocking down doors of all sizes, the unanticipated guest that it is. We lose life, lose livelihood. Dreams die and bodies deteriorate with disease. Wedding bands go missing and houses fold in foreclosure. We hold our breath waiting for the bad news, waiting to hear that the world will be ripped from under our feet. We, all of us, cradle unnamed grief, crying into corners when the world isn’t looking as we wait for someone—anyone—to say it’s not too much to want to make sense of it all.”
Source: Matter of Little Losses: Finding Grace to Grieve the Big (and Small) Things
“We weep, always, for the hundreds of ways loss lingers in our world.”
Source: Matter of Little Losses: Finding Grace to Grieve the Big (and Small) Things
“Seldom seen, growing along the ocean floor, the white-plumed anemone is a watery blossom. It is white lace opening under tons of black, opening as if bathed in the sun, while so far from the sun.
This is the trick to staying well, isn't it: to feel the sun even in the dark. To not lose the truth of things when they go out of view. To grow just the same. To know there is still water, even when we are thirsty. To know there is still love, even when we are lonely. To know there is still peace, even when we are suffering.
None of this invalidates our pain, but only strengthens our way back into the light.”
“Grief is a strange thing. It shows up in the oddest of places. As time passes, it becomes threaded into your life in a subtle way you don't quite notice at first. When you smile and feel real joy but at the same moment tears spring to your eyes, that's when you know that grief is not absent even in happiness.”
“We aren't the lucky ones. Not really. We're just the ones left behind to remember the ones we've lost.”
Source: River Of Sorrows
“They wouldn't want you to mope, would they? Those who didn't make it. Not after all they did for you, even if they did nothing but die, and unwillingly, and not for you.”
Source: Old Babes in the Wood: Stories