Emily Ray

“Forgive yourself for outgrowing certain people in your life. Forgive yourself for all of those moments you had to protect your energy, for all of those moments you had to make the hard decision to choose yourself, because by staying, and trying to fight harder, and give more, and be more, and fix and fix and save and save, you were only ever depleting yourself to the point of exhaustion. Forgive yourself for all of the times you tore up pieces of your own heart in order to mend another human being, hoping that it would heal them and nourish them and make them better or happier. Forgive yourself for wanting to save the people you loved.”
― Bianca Sparacino, A Gentle Reminder

“Love is not blood and suffering. Love is not murdering your son to appease your own vanity. Love is not hatred or wrath, consigning billions of people to eternal torture because they have offended your fragile ego or disobeyed your rules. Love is not obedience, conformity or submission. It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.”
― Dan Barker, Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

“And yet every time I think I can’t take any more, I do.”
― David Sheff, Beautiful Boy

“It must be like a soldier in a trench during a bombing raid. I’ve shut down every nonessential emotion—worry, fear—concentrating every neuron in my new brain on the moment in order to stay alive.”
― David Sheff, Beautiful Boy