My mother is European and expresses her love through food and cuddling. She wasn’t the type of mother who would make it to school plays or soccer games, but if you wanted to stay at home sick, she was your girl. Whenever you’d go up to her room to cuddle with her, she’d pull out a Kit Kat or Snickers bar from her night table and look at you with dancing eyes.
Older dogs are special because they have had more rejection. Their hope is gone and, even though no one seems to know exactly how old any rescue dog is, when you adopt an older dog you are cramming their last years with love and giving them the security that comes with knowing they have a home.
Travel Etiquette: When dealing with foreigners, pretend you are Canadian.
I define me. No event or person does this. I define me. I decide who I am and how I’m going to behave, and I choose to be better. To look more carefully, to trudge deeper. To think about other people’s past and not judge someone for doing or handling something differently than I would. To understand my limitations, my shortcomings – that is my growth edge.
Awesome,” I told him. “I felt defensive at first, like I hadn’t done anything worth apologizing for, but I recognized that it wasn’t about my intention; it was about how my action was received. That my action was unwelcome. I get that now, and it didn’t take long for it to click this time.
The people who live in sadness tend to be depressives and can struggle with that their entire lives. They typically have huge amounts of empathy for others. These people also tend to love animals more than the average person loves animals. They are sensitive to others and are typically great listeners, but again, they can also have serious issues with depression.
I just peed and forgot to take off my underwear.
Judging other people had become my way of avoiding judgment of myself, and I had to do better than that.
Whereas siblings tend to police you, cousins are your partners in crime.
Relationships without hiccups were too boring, so inevitably they had to end. Don’t get comfortable. Uncomfortable and not knowing had become my comfort zone. I was always looking for an ultimatum – a way to test someone’s commitment, to prove they would disappoint me, and if they didn’t do anything wrong, I would find a way to prove they were disappointing before they even had a chance to be.
I read somewhere that in order to be of use to others, you need to clean out your own injuries.
I had to leave my parents to love them again. I had to move across the country to appreciate that I actually had any pull toward them – that I needed them. I had to get away from them in order to come back to them. I’d like to say they did the best they could, but that couldn’t have been their best. I wasn’t doing my best either, so the idea that everyone is always doing the best they can is a trope. Some people are just interested in surviving; doing their best doesn’t even occur to them.
I didn’t know that my brother’s death was defining me. I didn’t know that I had the ability to say no to being defined by death. Now I was with a person who could help me process what happened and turn the parts of me that acted like a nine-year-old into a self-actualized adult who had come to a better understanding of what it means to dig deep and admit your pain – thereby beginning the process of relinquishing it.
Vulnerability in my mind was akin to carbohydrates: I wasn’t willing to go there unless it was alcohol-induced.
Choose the guy that’s going to make you a better girl.
It’s been my experience that people who make proclamations about themselves are usually the opposite of what they claim to be. If someone truly is a loyal friend, then they wouldn’t need to broadcast it; eventually, people will figure it out. Who talks about themselves like that? I have a lot of good friends and not one of them ever introduced themselves by saying, “I’m a very good friend.
Without the laughter, we’d all be dying too.
Unless you’re playing Who’s Hiding the Ecstasy?, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make it. I’ve got plans.” Don’t married people know that the last thing a single person wants to do on a Friday night is play a nutty game of Yahtzee? I’d rather take a bubble bath with my father.
My dad’s funeral was one of those instances when you’re reminded of what it means to show up for people. The tradition.
Why do people show up – if not out of decency, and tradition?