Liz

“If you’re sitting in the living room but want to be in the kitchen, the first thing you have to do is realize you’re in the fucking living room.” Oh God, I thought. Good News Jack is speaking in metaphor again. I nodded, following the concept thus far. “Otherwise,” he said, “you’ll never know to get up and walk into the kitchen.” I stared at him with my mouth open. We can’t get someplace new until we’re honest about where we are.”
― Janelle Hanchett, I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering

“Interpretation was a matter of great subtlety, a word with many contexts, for example it is often said that an actor interprets a role, or a musician a piece of music.”
― Katie Kitamura, Intimacies

“I just feel pathetic, Jack. I was sitting there like a motherfucking loser, and I just feel pathetic.” Against all evidence of my time working with him, I still expected words of encouragement, words like, “Oh you’re not pathetic. Look at all you’ve done, Janelle! You’re a shining star!” But after a pause, he asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could be okay with being pathetic?”
― Janelle Hanchett, I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering

“I would look around at the disorder of my life, the chaos and ambiguity—emptiness and servitude alongside exquisite beauty—and I’d think, Somebody else must feel this way too. Because I knew I was grateful. I knew I was so happy to be here I sometimes felt the hand of God himself had spread across my broken shoulders. And yet, maybe I hate motherhood.”
― Janelle Hanchett, I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering