Erica’s Reviews > Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story > Status Update

I've never highlighted more passages in a book before in my life. I think Jewel and I could he good friends.

"I never valued what a stand-up guy my dad was to keep us, despite his terror and inadequacy. He did not abandon us. It wasn’t until much later that I was able to appreciate this. At the time, being mad at him was easy. He was there every day. Learning to be mad at and fear my mom would take a lot longer."

"And yet another part of us fantasized about everyone seeing what our dad had done to us. That feeling vanished as quickly as the marks did, though, as it does for any animal that senses survival is the enemy you know."

Whewwww, that resonates with my childhood something fierce. I knew I loved Jewel for a reason.

Super weird after watching six seasons of Alaska the Last Frontier, though.

I saw that no one outran their suffering; they only piled new pain upon their original pain. I saw the pain pile up into insurmountable mountains, and I saw the price people paid who buried all that pain, and along with it their hope, joy, and chance at happiness. All because they were trying to outrun the pain rather than walk through it and heal.

Change is for the warrior. If you look in the mirror and say, I am willing to be the one who is accountable and take responsibility for my own happiness and the shape of my own life, then I welcome you as a friend on this journey. I believe in you. I believe we are whole, intact, and capable of claiming the quality of life we all deserve. This I know: our essential self cannot be erased no matter what we endure.