Cara

“I wasn’t the same after she left. There’s a sadness in me that never really goes away.” Veda looked up at me, but I held her close and was determined to continue. “Sometimes I cover it up with tattoos or humor or being the life of the party but, even then, I still always feel just a little broken. When you lose someone like that, I don’t know . . . you never really get over it. Once I realized it wasn’t going to get better, I embraced it—tucked it away and learned to live with that secret part of myself.” Emotion swelled in my throat, and I didn’t bother hiding the thick gravel in my voice. “Now I don’t want to forget her. I tried for so long to forget, but she doesn’t deserve that.”
― Lena Hendrix, Just Between Us

“women are conditioned not to feel the most obvious signal for injustice: anger. So, when frustration or irritated confusion surface at some outmoded sexist incident, we don’t accept that emotion at face value. Instead, we subdue it, shrug it off, explain it away – normally at deeply unconscious levels – and our bodies are left to make sense of what’s happening.”
― Jennifer Cox, Women Are Angry: The Times Self-Help Book of the Year 2024

“And now the edges are starting to fray. I’m coming apart at the goddamn seams, and you’re the one holding the thread that could undo it all.”
― Elsie Silver, A Photo Finish

“we must all try to be kinder than necessary, because those hardest to love need love the most. Some people come into our life as a blessing, while others come into our life as a lesson, so love them for who they are instead of judging them for who they are not.”
― Yolanda Hadid, Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease