Whitney Hanson > Quotes

“they told me my job description but i think i’ve got it wrong. they said i was supposed to man the lighthouse and save lost ships from going down.
but every time i saw the ships i forgot about the light. i dove headfirst into the sea and swam to save their life.
  i drowned us both in the process; the ships never found the shore. i ended up helping less when i meant to be helping more.
  i think when they told me to save people with my light, i mistook their words and tried to save people with my life.
  i know i should have turned the light on, i know i should have taken their advice, but i don’t know what love is if it is not sacrifice.”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“dear empathy,
please stop telling me
that it’s okay when they hurt me
stop allowing me to accept
the knife you see in their side
is a reasonable excuse
for them to put two in mine
please stop introducing me to their demons
i don’t want to shake hands
with the reasons
they can’t seem to stay
please stop waving a white flag
and making me pity their anger
and make peace with their madness”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“you are not a second choice they didn’t choose you not because you are not worthy but because they weren’t built to love you i know their arms feel like they were supposed to carry you but their lack of strength is not a testimony of the weight of your soul but rather the weakness of theirs you are not too much”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“I don't know how to love small
so if I can't love you a lot
I can't love you at all”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“I think I am the kind of person
that people fall in love with
too quickly
And I dont mean to complain
because it is wonderful to be loved
but I am also the kind of person
that people walk way from
when they realize
the beautiful pool of water
that they wandered into
is actually an ocean
with too many questions
I wish my company
didnt make people feel
like theyre drowning
mystery draws them in
then mystery makes them leave”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“Loving you
felt like leaving a book out in the wind
the pages turned too fast for me to read
I dient get enough time
to adore you
to explore you
to trace your lines with my fingertips
and reread my favorite parts
to live the story I knew we we meant to be
before I knew it
the book was closed
the story was over
- unfinished”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“society's perspective
on beauty
isn't even based
on a person's
soul anymore
it's based on
their large
ass
and tits.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“nothing bites harder than my own expectations”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“for once i wanted someone to be so sure of me
that everything else disappears.”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“i told you that you remind me of springtime
and i didn’t lie
i just forgot that seasons are temporary
you can’t tell spring to stay
the same way
you can’t ask the sun not to set
but sometimes
i can close my eyes
and remember the feeling of sunlight
the smell of a fresh start
and the sound of birds singing again
thank you for reminding me
that things will be good again
even if it was only for a season”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“I am not very good at taking criticism.
I know you weren't criticizing me when you decided to be with her.
But it feels like everything you give her that you couldn't give me is a statement of my faults.
I imagine you kiss lines down her body that spell out all of the reasons I am unlovable.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“I have a bad habbit
of clinging to the people and places
that have been hurting me
today I asked myself to explain why
because sometimes
it doesn't make sense to me either
this is the conclusion I have come to
I stay because although im treated poorly
I find comfort in the surety
of knowing exactly what I'm getting
moving on is a commitment to uncertainty
and things could always be worse
on the other side of a big jump

I have never been good with risk
I don't like to gamble
I like control”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“it is impossible to unlace
my heartstrings from yours
how do I untangle
a connection authored by the stars?”
― Whitney Hanson, Harmony

“people with the most intricate minds have the most turmoil inside you cannot be filled with the galaxies and not expect explosions”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“hope is found in the way things always rearrange. you can find solace in the fact that even if this is the worst storm you’ve yet to face, the sun will always fall back into place.”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“my biggest fear is that we were meant to be. what if we were wrong, and we missed out on all the ways we were supposed to love each other. what if timing and space was just an excuse that we used to separate two hearts that beat simultaneously. maybe we are going to live the rest of our lives watching the wrong story unfold.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“i know that right now you want to run to them
but closed arms will not hold you
and careless hearts will not heal you”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“you are so incredibly capable of collecting the stars you just have to overcome your fear of heights”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“all the parts you think are broken or missing, love will put them back.”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“I hurt someone else
when I was trying to fix what you broke
I tried to blame you
But I realized I became you”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“i can’t tell if my expectations for love are far too high or far too low”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“sometimes the battles that take the most strength are the ones you choose not to fight ~surrender”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“and time will carry them away again. sometimes i wake”
― Whitney Hanson, Climate

“what hurts the most are memories we didn’t make the pictures i had of our future i spent an eternity waking up to you tell me, how do i forget things that never happened?”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“It is never selfish to take care of your heart, if you need to move, then move.
If you need to stay, then stay.
Don't let anyone else dictate where your peace lands.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“If you're like me
you struggle with walking away from situations
that aren't healthy for you
If you're like me
it is hard to see the line between I care for you and I will put your needs before mine until my feet are blistered from racing to catch you every time you fall
If you're like me
then listen
Walking away from situations that are hurting you does not mean that you are heartless
It means that you have outgrown the shoes you've been using to chase unreciprocated love
It means that you are learning to value yourself
You have not lost your capacity to love
You are discovering how to love you.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“At some point
I stopped writing you poems
hoping that you'd fall in love
and I started writing about
how it felt when you didn't”
― Whitney Hanson

“it’s funny to me how everyday life mixes with the internal world each of us exists in. in the notes on my phone is a mixture of my inner demons and my grocery lists.”
― Whitney Hanson, Home

“a three-word question
who are you?
it is so easy for me.
[...]
i am everything i love
and that is enough”
― Whitney Hanson, Harmony

“I pierced my ear and it got infected
for weeks my ear was red and swollen
I knew that if I just took the earring out
I could heal much faster
but I thought the earring
made me feel beautiful
so I let it stay
- toxic relationships”
― Whitney Hanson, Home