The Awful Truth
one day, wether you are 14, 28 or 65,
you will stumble upon someone
who will start a fire in you that
cannot die.
however, the saddest,
most awful truth you will ever find
- is that they are not always
with whom we spend our lives.
- Beau Taplin
Even if you have one soulmate there is no guarantee you’ll be able to spend you greatest joys and worst sorrows with them. Love is so precious and fleeting and true love is so rare, but it sometimes isn’t destined for forever.
But regardless, I like to think you’ll know if you meet your soulmate. A fire, a pure, almost involuntary fire will be lit. And it will never, ever go out. You may not be able to spend eternity with your soulmate, but a part of you has changed from meeting them. And it makes the time you get to spend with your soulmate even more irreplacable, because it might only be for a day. For a month. Even for a year. It puts into perspective how extremely lucky the ones are that get to spend a lifetime or eternity with thier soulmate. How wondorous and beautiful love is. And how temporary love can be. How awful reality can be with and without love.
Men In Black
"Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."
-Agent K, Men in Black
I can honestly say I never thought of all quotes, my favorite one would be from Men in Black, but here we are. This quote shows to me how little we actually know, but it's comforting because it simultaneously makes me feel that anything could happen, we just may not yet have the knowledge to understand that yet.
″ Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light”
- J.K. Rowling
I grew up reading Harry Potter, so the books left a big mark in my life. This is one of my favourite quotes from the books, because it reminds me that happiness is not always granted and sometimes when we are facing hard moments in life if we remember to look for the positives in the situation and “turn on the light” things can become much easier.
Smile
"He forced himself to smile- not out of pleasure, and not out of satisfaction. He smiled despite the grief he felt at the deaths of his men; he smiled because that whas what he did. That was how he proved to the Lord Ruler- and to himself- that he wasn't beaten. No, he wasn't going to walk away. He wasn't finished yet. Not by far."
-Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn, The Final Empire.
This one gives me chills every time. It's from one of my favorite books, and is written by my favorite author of all time. (If you haven't read something by Brandon Sanderson yet you are missing out!)
Smiling is so often viewed as a naieve, gentle gesture. Few realize that those who smile the most often are also those with trauma. Smiling is used as a coping gesture- a way to remain strong for the benifit of those around you. To see this reflected so eloquently in fantasy is incredible.
From Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”
"Just remember that the things you put in your head are there forever, he said.
You forget some things don't you?
Yes. You forget the things you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."
This brief but powerful exchange between the Man and the Boy, father and son wandering a ruined, post-apocalyptic world, illustrates perfectly to me the flaws in our memory. We do not get to choose which memories stand salient in our minds, and sometimes the most difficult ones persist no matter how hard we try to move past them.
McCarthy is, in my opinion, a master at balancing a sort of rhythmic beauty with a blunt, unapologetic brutality in his writing. His novels are as beautiful and vibrant as they are disturbing and dark.
beautiful words
I listed a few of my favorites. Two of these are from Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, because it is my favorite book of all time. If you haven’t read it, you should. Anyways, I love each of these because I see a little bit of myself in every book I read. There’s always that one character, that one line, that scene that the author puts in their story carelessly that reaches out, grips something inside me and shakes something loose.
So, here they are:
I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebith instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. -Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay)
He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief’s kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them. -Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. -John 15:13
Those who know what it’s like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light. -Victoria Aveyard (King’s Cage)
If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter and bread with only the scent of jam spread out on top of it. -Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)