Mel

“You can’t keep counting forever”
― Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes

“I am careful, Felipe, but not with my friends.”
― Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea

“Sadness, my enemy, is gaining ground, Ingrid. At this rate in the years I have left I'm going to turn into a hermit.'

'That would be death in life, Victor. Do as I do. Don't wait to defend yourself against that enemy, go out and confront it. It took me years in therapy to learn that.'

'What reasons do you have to be sad, child?'

'That's what my husband asks me. I don't know, Victor, I suppose you don't need reasons; it's part of your nature.”
― Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea

“It's very difficult to change your nature. For me it's too late, there's nothing for it but to accept myself the way I am. I'm eighty years old: it was my birthday the day you arrived. That's the age of memory, Ingrid. The age of making an inventory of life,' he said.

'Forgive me if I'm intruding, but can you tell me what's in your inventory?'

'My life has been a series of journeys. I've traveled from one side of the world to the other. I've been a foreigner without realizing I had deep roots... My spirit has sailed as well. But I don't see the point in making these observations now; I should have done so a long time ago.'

'I don't think anybody reflects on their life when they're young, Victor, and most people never do. It would never occur to my parents, for example, and they're almost ninety. They simply live for the day and are happy.'

'It's a shame we only make this kind of inventory when we're old, Ingrid, when there's no time left to make amends.'

'You can't change the past, but perhaps you can banish the worst memories...'

'Listen, Ingrid, the most important events, the ones that determine our fate, are almost always completely beyond our control. In my case, when I take stock, I see my life was marked by the Spanish Civil War in my youth, and later on by the military coup, by the concentration camps and my exiles. I didn't choose any of that: it simply happened to me.”
― Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea