Ria Smart

“Memories are comfy too, they are swaddling bands, they wrap you up warm like a mummy. What moment is there in life that is not already a memory?”
― Violette Leduc, The Lady and the Little Fox Fur

“We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilised vase on the table.”
― Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

“While society sometimes carelessly refers to sociopathic, narcissistic behavior as “shameless,” people with sociopathic narcissism are so burdened by neurotic shame that they can't empathically feel their impact on other people, or even feel their own authentic desire for connection.”
― Carolyn Elliott, Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power

“Forgiveness calls on deep reserves of moral courage: the courage to break out of the spiral of self-pity; the courage to set aside resentment; the courage to rise above biterness; the courage to act well, when all our instincts call on us to act badly. p112”
― Hugh Mackay, The Kindness Revolution: How we can restore hope, rebuild trust and inspire optimism