“Her grief was a forest with no trails, and she couldn’t guess how long her heart would walk through it, as her body walked other places… It reminded her of holding hands on the deck of a swaying boat, when, without warning, the other person lets you go. The moment between when your hand is empty and when you reach the railing can take years.”
Category Archives: Grief
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
“It had never occurred to me that both situations were whatever they were, whether I figured them out or not. And it had certainly never crossed my mind that my reaction- my suffering- was mine: something I had come up with, not something I needed to blame on anyone else… The idea that in life, unlike in writing, the drive to analyze and influence might be something worth relinquishing was to me a revelation.”
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
“Grief is another world. Like the carnal world, it is one where reason wouldn’t work.”
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
“It is always the kindnesses that finish you off. My sister, a woman who found adult physical contact more discomfiting than dental treatment, put her arms around me and, from some unexpected place that felt like it was located in the deepest part of me, I began to sob, huge, breathless, snotty tears.”
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
“The strangest thing was that I couldn’t cry. What I felt was bigger than grief. I was numb, my brain humming with questions — How long? How far? Why? — and then I would find myself doubled over again, wanting to be sick with it, this knowledge, this hefty blow, this pain, this pain, this pain.”
King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
“It would be easy to stay in the dark, to drown. Slowly, I lower my hands and force myself to look at the sunlight. It takes more effort than I thought possible. I refuse to let [him] keep me prisoner one second longer than he already has. I refuse to live this way.”
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
“These thoughts take me to the edge of despair, so I will myself- I force myself- not to have them.”
After You by Jojo Moyes
“Sometimes I look at the lives of the people around me and I wonder if we aren’t all destined to leave a trail of damage. It’s not just your mum and dad who fuck you up, Mr. Larkin. I gazed around me, like someone suddenly handed clear glasses, and I saw that pretty much everyone bore the brutal imprint of love, whether it was lost, whipped away from them, or simply vanished into a grave.”
After You by Jojo Moyes
“No journey out of grief was straightforward. There would be good days and bad days. Today was just a bad day, a kink in the road, to be traversed and survived.”
The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhonda Riley
“Grief is a powerful river in flood. It cannot be argued or reasoned or wrestled down to an insignificant trickle. You must let it take you where it is going. When it pulls you under, all you can do is keep your eyes open for rocks and fallen trees, try not to panic, and stay face up so you will know where the sky is. You will need that information later. Eventually, its waters calm and you will be on a shore far from where you began, raw and sore, but clean and as close to whole as you will ever be again.”
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