Melissa Leonard

“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.”
― Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

“Love was both the softest edge and the sharpest edge of what made life real.”
― Susan Meissner, A Fall of Marigolds

“The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy.”
― Pope Francis, The Name of God Is Mercy

“She said that I was highly gifted.

Are people lowly gifted?

Or medium gifted?

Or just gifted? It's possible that all labels are curses. Unless they're on cleaning products.

In my opinion, it's not really a great idea to see people as just one thing.”
― Holly Goldberg Sloan, Counting by 7s