Tracy Barnes

“Strength, I had learned, was like this littered forest floor, built of small triumphs and infinite blunders, sunny hours followed by sudden storms that tore it all down. We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best.”
― Shelley Read, Go as a River

“I was a girl alone in a house of men, quickly becoming a woman. It was like blossoming in a bank of snow.”
― Shelley Read, Go as a River

“Loss has nothing to do with what you do deserve and don’t deserve.”
― Shelley Read, Go as a River