Tea Stankovic

“True belonging has no hint of arrogance or reactivity, and as Brené Brown says, it is not passive. “[True belonging] is a practice that requires us to be vulnerable, get uncomfortable, and learn how to be present with people without sacrificing who we are.”
― Vienna Pharaon, The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love

“You scared?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I know,” she said. “What you’re going through is scary.”
A wave of comfort washed over me. My friend hadn’t urged me to be strong. She hadn’t told me to stand tall or soldier on. She hadn’t uttered the shallow reassurance that I’d get through this. Rather, she’d given me permission, right before sleep, to be the frightened little girl that I was.”
― Diane Guerrero, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided

“When I do something wrong,' he said, 'or merely stupid, I find it very useful to draw up-not exactly a balance sheet; no, it's more like a genealogy, if you see what I mean, a family tree of the offence. Who or what were its parents, ancestors, col- laterals? What are likely to be its descendants-in my own life and other people's? It's surprising how far a little honest research will take one. Down into the rat-holes of one's own character. Back into past history. Out into the world around one. Forward into possible consequences. It makes one realize that nothing one does is unimportant and nothing wholly private.”
― Aldous Huxley

“If snow is the silence that falls from the sky, perhaps rain is an endless sentence.”
― Han Kang, Greek Lessons