Why would anyone choose chaos when they could live in control?

"Cole Walter doesn't do nice unless he's getting something out of it. That boy's gonna eat you alive, and you won't see it coming."

"Aunt Kathy, Jackie might be hot, you know, in a preppy, Goody Two-Shoes sort of way, but I could never be embarrassed about this," Isaac said and pointed down at his body.

"That's exactly how you should be acting in the presence of a beautiful girl--embarrassed!"

How was I ever going to live with this boy? Everything about him made me selfconscious and uncomfortable.

I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about the male species. I went to a private school for girls! How was I ever going to survive living in a house full of boys?

When you don't plan ahead, things get messy.

"Ssh," Grandma shushed me. "There is no need for apologies. You did your best, and your best has always been good enough for me,"

"It's always the right time for the truth," said Mama Johnson

Her mama's voice was filled with love and warmth. "Baby, there ain't nothin' as bad as you bein' dead."

"kiss me like you did before so that I can't think."

"No. Yes."
He grinned. "Which is it?"
"I don't know. I can't think when you kiss me like that," I told him honestly.
"Then I'll have to do more of that kind of kissing," he said.
"Okey," I said, feeling light-headed and weirdly weak-kneed.

"Same old, same old, I guess. I didn't really expect it to be otherwise. Still, sometimes you hope it will be different. You can't help it."

[...] Simon went to the fridge for a beer as soon as he got in, moaned that she'd bought the wrong kind, then felt bad about being ungrateful so came to kiss her while she was cooking.

Before the arrival of the children she used to tell him she loved him frequently. And it's not like she loved him any less after Luke was born - if anything she loved him more - so why had she let it go unsaid? It would only have taken a moment to have said it that morning.

"How can you expect me to talk about me when you won't talk about you?"

Five years...it felt like just yesterday, it felt like a million years ago.

"Let me show you what life is like in the moment. No past, no future, just the one perfect moment you're standing in and there's no guilt and there's no shame and there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of..."

I started creating worlds in my head, other people, other lives. I slipped out of my skin and into theirs, and while I was there I wasn't grieving anymore. I was feeling what they were feeling.

Hvis vi blir mer bevisst hva vi tenker og klarer å gi tankene et positivt innhold, vil vi skape et bedre liv for oss selv.