Wednesday, February 05, 2020

All the bright places: Jennifer Niven (quotes)

1. "The world breaks everyone and afterwards, many are strong at the broken places" ~Ernest Hemmingway

2. Rules of geocaching: take something, leave something

3. Early in our lives, early in the new year. If you're counting, you'll notice the earlys outnumber the lates

4. Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

5. I am rooted but I flow

6. When we're in the act of wandering, we need to be present, not watching it through a lens

7. The ugliest place is beauitiful to someone...to the people who live there

8. You have to live your life like  you'll never be sorry

9. You can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to

10. Growth itself contains the germ of happiness. Maybe a germ is enough. Maybe a germ is all you need.

11. Germ: origin of something, a thing that may serve as the basis of further growth or development

12. The problem with people is that they forget  that most of the time it's the small things that count. Everyones' so busy in the Waiting Place.

13. There's a built in ending to everything in the world, right?

14. There is only now and if now is only two days then two days is your life and everything will be in proportion.

15. Sometimes things feel true even if they aren't. 

16. But does forever have a built-in ending?

17. Words can be bullies.
Positives one go on the wall and negative ones on the floor. They don't need to hang around after you do.

18. Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!

19. The thing I realize is that it's not what you take, it's what you leave

Tuesday, February 04, 2020

All the bright (and dark!) places

When life has so many real happy and tragic stories, how is it that a book can you feel so sad, completely out of it.
I wished I hadn't peeked but I guess one knows such endings much earlier as one after the other event leads up to it.

It's the kind of book I hate and love. As a writer it makes me feel inadequate. It makes me wonder why I write when I can see such beautifully written words. What treasures do I have to offer at all?

As a reader it makes me feel so completely out of it. I hate it for making me feel like that. And yet I respect the power within in it to make me feel it.

I wonder at myself why made up stories induce real feelings.

It's not something I will read again though I might share it's quotes later.