Jean McDowell

“Parents who have lost a child should be told that they will never heal from their loss. They will always have a terrible, wide hole within them. And other holes, smaller ones. The way the dead daughter used to smell like apples in the summer? That’s a hole. How the dead boy snorted when he laughed really hard. Another hole. One hole surrounded by nearly an entire constellation of others. So no, if your child dies, you will not heal. Do not wait for the healing to arrive. It will never come. The holes will never leave or be filled with anything at all. But holes are interesting things.”
― Augusten Burroughs, This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

“All improvements, transformations, achievements, liberations; everything you want to change about yourself and your life; everything you want to make happen, any obstacle you want to overcome, any crisis you must survive—the prerequisite is being able to allow yourself to feel whatever it is you feel and not pretend to feel something you don’t.”
― Augusten Burroughs, This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

“I don't reproach the spring
for starting up again.
I can't blame it
for doing what it must
year after year.

I know that my grief
will not stop the green.”
― Wisława Szymborska, View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

“Nothing worth having comes easy" is not about showing up early at the office. It's about showing up in your own life. And living inside the very moment you want to run away from.”
― Augusten Burroughs, This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.