Brianna Jo♡

“No longer married, suddenly I was widowed. From Latin, the name means "emptied." Far worse; it felt like being torn in half, ripped apart from the single functioning organism that had been our family, our lives. Shattered, the word kept recurring; the whole pattern shattered, just as the mountain rocks had shattered his body.”
― Elaine Pagels, Why Religion? A Personal Story

“The Widow Russell apparently took her at-home retirement so far as the abstain from receiving guests in the formal parlors: Theo was shown to a pink-papered upstairs room where she sat in an armchair whose chintz upholstery featured roses twining daintily on a white ground. She was head-to-toe in black, of course, and for a moment he had the very odd impression of a spider lurking in a rose bouquet.”
― Cecilia Grant, A Lady Awakened

“The Moth and Its Beloved

Ask the moth the beauty of the candle
And it will burn without a confession
There is a secret to its longing
For it feels no fear or hesitation

The moth is too much in love with the flame Yet it does not appear under the sun
For the moon’s light is far too feeble, and
It gave up on its pursuit of the sun

Just a sight of a candle is enough
To remind it of its real beloved
So it settles for that candle in reach,
Revels in its heat, and asks to be burned”
― Zubair Ahsan, Of Endeavours Blue

“You are indeed a victim of our culture's mercenary exploitation of feminine innocence.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde