Caroline

“Torma means “offering cake.” You offer the torma to your don. You feed the ghost that does you harm, “that which possesses you.” Giving it a little something sweet is a way of saying, Thank you for the pain you caused me, because that pain woke me up. It hurt enough to make me change. “Wish for more pain,” a friend’s therapist once told her, “because that’s how you’ll change.” It has to hurt so much that you have to do something differently. The pain forces your hand.”
― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“Here’s the thing: Betrayal is neat. It absolves you from having to think about your own failures, the ways you didn’t show up for your partner, the harm you might have done.”
― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“Alone is how—”
“—is how we survive, yes, you’ve said. I can’t say whether that’s true or not, but one thing I do know is that alone is not how we live.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“This is what it is to be rooted in a place, or to have a place rooted inside you: Every bit means something to someone you know, and therefore, every bit means something to you.”
― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful