Helen

“Ned, the thing about seeking forgiveness from someone you’ve hurt is that you’re hurting them again by asking for something else from them. If you’re sorry, say you’re sorry, apologise, let them know you’ve realised the enormity of what you’ve done and won’t do it again, but leave it there. Don’t expect anything else from them. Don’t require them to say they forgive you so you can feel better. Or expect them to move on according to your timetable. Or to even give the whole thing any kind of headspace. Apologise and then leave it. Sit with how you feel about not being forgiven despite how sorry you are. Don’t make it worse.”
― Dorothy Koomson, Tell Me Your Secret

“We’re all searching for a piece of home, or a piece of ourselves. We look for a taste of it in the food we order and the ingredients we buy. Then we separate.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“Confession: What I understand that They—most everyone, really—don’t, is that suicide isn’t an act of selfishness. Sometimes the hurt/pain/shame/loss is so much, so constant, and with no guarantee that it’ll ever dissolve, sometimes the cost/benefit analysis of life/death truly feels like it’ll only ever work out in in favour of death.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Becoming of Noah Shaw

“She’s long ago given up wishing that she had a mother who felt things less keenly, who was able to contain her emotions, at least in front of the person who was suffering first-hand. Ever since she was a little girl, Viola had experienced everything twice: when it happened and then when she’d told her mother what happened. The second time was always worse because her mother’s reaction would always reignite Viola’s own pain and then she’d have the extra pain of her mother to contend with too.”
― Menna van Praag, The Patron Saint of Lost Souls: The bewitching novel of getting your heart's desire