Lauren > Recent Status Updates

“It’s not that I’m unaware of the suffering and the soon-to-be-more suffering in the world, it’s that I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain. The beauty and the suffering are equally true.”

“I say, if you think that a long life is of value just because it is our only time here on earth, or because you appreciate what God has allotted you, or because there might be the possibility of treatment or cure for whatever ails you within your lifetime if only the lifetime is long enough, your view will be different than mine.”

I’m really struggling with this one. I want to like it, and I am enjoying the idea of interconnectedness, but I think a lot of the science is a little too out there for me. I have trouble making those connections without flipping back to find who I think is being referenced.

“Sometimes she felt like everyone she knew had already become whatever they were going to become, and she was still just waiting.”

Reading this was wonderful but I am LOVING listening to it

“...And we even get to guzzle sweet drinks and harmless looking tabs we hope might make us feel better, or dance faster, or look prettier, or just forget. We get to want something to come easy for a change. We get to make every choice on that daily life scale from forward thinking to utter self sabotage. And we still don’t deserve to be raped.”

“Yes, I did some stupid things. We all do. But now I know we’re allowed to be kids who mask our gut deep insecurities with vanity. We get to wear crop tops and tight jeans with a ribbon of lace for a belt and high-heeled boots. We get to check ourselves ten times in the dorm room mirror, necks craning to see how fat our skinny little asses look from the back...”

“Even though I know where the culpability rests, firmly, I have trouble soaking off the most dogged shame. I am scraping away the last of the sticky residue with my thumbnail.”

Recommend skipping “Roscoe the Handicapped Angel” for anyone who doesn’t want to listen to cringeworthy renditions (voices included) of different members of an adult group home. Yikes 😬

This is dreadful. Carla is an awful, miserable, and conniving human who is somehow so poorly written that she remains boring. And Lily isn’t much better.

Quick question, is this supposed to make me want to cry?

“She is a role model for me and a reminder that the love we need to lead a fulfilling life cannot only come from others, but must come from inside us as well.”

“Life is never perfect. We all live some form of Option B. This book is to help us all kick the shit out of it.”

"Beware the clowns, the leaders who start out as jokes, people make fun of them, their caricatures, cartoons in newspapers, and people decide they are harmless. Those men are the most dangerous. The day comes when they use the power against their own people."

"The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone."

"People are very bad and very good. A little love goes a long way."

Loving this storytelling through poetry!

I am already too invested in this book to stop it, but I would HIGHLY recommend reading it instead of listening because the woman's voice on the audiobook is horrendous.

Kristy 100% told me not to bother with this but it was available immediately on overdrive aaaaand my expectations are low 😂

"For a long time, I was taking care of her and protecting her from getting caught. I figured she would eventually get sick of loving this way. But it's just getting worse."

"Don't be a lady, be a warrior. The warrior feeds all three of her selves: mind, spirit, body. Eat until you're full, trust your body to guide you, treat yourself like someone you love, listen to what you want and need and give it to yourself, be your own friend."

"The courage to surrender comes from knowing that the love and pain will almost kill us, but not quite."

"I'll show up and stand humble in the face of a loved ones pain. I'll admit I'm as empty-handed, dumbstruck, and out of ideas as she is. I won't try to make sense of things or require more than she can offer. I won't let my discomfort with her pain keep me from witnessing it for her. I'll never try to grab or fix her pain."

"People who are hurting don't need avoiders, protectors, or fixers. What we need are patient, loving, witnesses. People to sit quietly and hold space for us. People to stand in helpless vigil to our pain."

"We either allow ourselves to feel the burn of our own pain, or someone we love gets burned by it."

"My spiral staircase of progress means that my pain will be both in front of me, and behind me, every damn day. I'll never be over it, but I vow to be stronger each time I face it. I keep climbing."

"Just because someone isn't willing or able to love us, it doesn't mean that we are unlovable."

"If we numb compulsively and chronically it's an addiction."

"Hurt doesn't go away simply because we don't acknowledge it. In fact, left unchecked, it festers, grows, and leads to behaviors that are completely out of line with whom we want to be, and thinking that can sabotage our relationships and careers."