Marta Oliynyk > Recent Status Updates

Остерігайся бездіяльності - ти й не уявляєш, наскільки допомагає праця, коли на серці тривожно і самотньо.

Тато завжди казав, що саме контекст визначає значення.

- Ну, чути такі слова на ринку — це одне, а от відчувати, як вони перекочуються на язиці, зовсім інше. Бо ж деякі слова — це набагато більше, ніж просто літери на сторінці, правда? У них є власна особлива форма і текстура. Вони немов кулі, сповнені енергії, й варто один раз видихнути, як вони вилітають з уст, зачіпаючи їх своїм гострим краєм. У правильному контексті вони можуть спричинити катарсис.

Страх ненавидить рутину. Коли боїшся, треба думати звичайні думки і робити звичайну роботу.

Мені подобалося уявляти, на якому папірці написали б мене, якби я була словом. Він би точно був задовгий і не того кольору. Клаптик паперу, який усюди невлад. Я хвилювалася, що взагалі ніколи не знайду власного місця серед комірок.

Я прибираю, допомагаю готувати, розпалюю вогонь у каміні. Усе, що я роблю, або зʼїдається, або забруднюється, або згоряє — і наприкінці дня не залишається нічого, що могло б засвідчити мою присутність. Моя вишивка завжди буде тут, - сказала вона. — Коли я її бачу, то почуваюся, ніби і я залишусь тут.... не можу дібрати правильного слова. Так ніби і я завжди буду тут.

— А він тут ненадовго чи на віки вічні? —
пошепки запитала я тата.
— Лише на трохи, — відповів він. — Отже,
напевно, назавжди.

So much of my life I have let slip by, because I have not attended to it. All this while, instead of seeking more time, I could have been paying attention.

The planet cooled and water formed; it was able to hold an atmosphere. And in this place, on this small blue rock, innumerable miracles: redwoods, computers, stingrays, pianos, you and me.

AREN'T WE LUCKY? Our DNA encodes for innumerable possible people, and yet it's you and l who are here-winners in a stupefying lottery. We came at the exact right moment, a blip in the hundred million centuries of the universe: the Earth inhabitable, not yet engulfed by the sun, but not only molten magma, inhospitable to life.

But Nick didn't care to know what their similarities were, anymore: He wanted, now, to pursue all the ways he could be different.

I wanted to tell Betty's granddaughter that it wasn't too late. That I had been like her, once, resentful of any interruptions. Later, I learned that life lay in the interruptions—that I had been wrong about life, entirely.

Betty often complained about her. Whenever Betty needed something, her granddaughter seemed inconvenienced, acted as though Betty were interrupting her very important life. Of course she was interrupting. As people we interrupted one another's lives—that was what we did.

Once she had believed that connection meant
sameness, consensus, harmony. Having everything in common. And now she understood that the opposite was true: that connection was more valuable-more remarkablefor the fact of differences. Friendship didn't require blunting the
richness of yourself to find common ground.
Sometimes it was that, but it was also appreciating another person, in all their particularity.

Had I never felt at ease before Ping? This was how it felt to be with him—a deep sigh of comfort.
Until now, belonging had meant a denial of myself—a flattening. With Ping it was different. I could be who I was, however imperfect.

It wasn't until years later that I would understand that just because I could win an argument, it didn't mean I was right.

We were tasked with killing: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows-pests who took food out of our mouths, according to Mao.

You'll miss this place, he told me. If only you could see how beautiful it is. All around us, there were miracles to be witnessed, marvels to be given attention. Look around, he said to me.
Really look.

There were two types of people, from what I could tell. In the first group were people who felt like they had to earn their existence. The other group took life less seriously. I envied the second category but couldn't help that I was a member of the first.

On the news it was always hurricanes, earthquakes, heat waves, fires.
Everything getting worse: inequality, corruption, racism. White supremacists were feeling threatened, lashing out, believing themselves to be the arbiters of who were and weren't real Americans, conveniently forgetting that they themselves occupied stolen land.

In my cancer class I learned that cancer resulted when genes that regulated cell growth and differentiation were mutated and caused a series of downstream effects in cells-chain reactions. Initial errors compounded into unmanageability. This could have described my performance in school. Initial errors compounded into unmanageability.

He didn't ask what I wanted and I was relieved. I wished I were a woman who could list what she wanted, confidently, as though ordering from a menu. But I wasn't that.

They probably didn't care everyone had their own private universe of concerns;

The seed is unspectacular, so old it resembles a stone. Yet she's aware it contains an entire future: roots, stems, leaves, blooms, to seeds once more-encoded, like she is. Her heart pumps blood, her lungs take in air, she sleeps, wakes, eats, excretes. Will her life be long or short? What has she chosen, she wonders, and what has chosen her?

And wasn't it sweet to be where you were and let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset, instead of always looking on into the mechanics of the days and the trouble ahead, which might never come.

becoming who you want to be is just like anything else. It takes practice. It requires belief that one day, you'll wake up and be a natural at it.

It is so much easier to sit in things and wait for something to save us.

Love is visible - it paints the air between two people a different color, and everyone can see it.