Quotes About Support

Catherine Ryan Hyde

I cover her with myself. See, if I have no body, I can be any shape I want. I can take up any amount of space I choose. I can be a blanket. Drape myself over her like a down comforter. I can pour myself over her head like water. I can shine on her like light, bathe her with myself until she feels something resembling warmth again. Don't believe it entirely, Mom, I say.

Sometimes it's easy to want something for somebody else, even if it's more than you want for yourself.

You can be just a regular, real person and still be the magic somebody else needs in her life. We do it for each other all the time. It's that everyday sort of magic. We're all capable of it, I do believe, but still you don't always see people living up to that potential.

I think very often in life we do something important for someone else for no better reason than that they need us to. And really, when you think about it . . . what more reason is needed?

People need help with perspective sometimes. If they're all alone in their own head, they can lose perspective. Sometimes you need to use somebody else like a mirror. Let them reflect back to you the way the world really is.

Why do I do that?" "Do what?" "Try to take responsibility for everything and fix everybody.

anymore. Maybe he was even with someone else after all this time. "You really look worried," Pete said. "Relax. Something came up that he

We can be angels to each other. We are angels to each other, all the time. And we should be. No divine intervention required. Just a sense of staying together and looking out for each other. You know. Safety in numbers.

he'd be proud of me for crying, and I cry harder. How do you stop crying, Simon?

Lots of people use helping somebody to make their life feel like more.

So you're saying you don't feed something in a situation where it would be a big disaster for it to grow.

I said, "You know, Pat, you're more like my mother than my mother is." She said, "Well, it works like that sometimes. Blood family, that's something we get dealt. Sometimes we get a bad hand. Not much way around it. You just have to grow up and get more family. The kind you get to pick out yourself.

I have trouble with people like that. Like that woman who was just here. They come up to you in a time of grief, and they can't seem to accept that it's grief. They can't just be in that moment of grief with you. They can't just say, 'Yeah, this is some pretty awful stuff.' They have to try to fix it. They have to solve it for you in a couple of sentences, which is ridiculous,

But they suggest something to get you out of what you're feeling, or they find some reason why it's all for the best. I don't understand why people can't just join you in your grief for a moment.

I'm sorry you are having trouble being happy right now, Raymond. We all take turns, I think.

We can be angels to each other. We are angels to each other, all the time.

wanted to say, "Be kind to each other, and don't let anybody come between you. And if someone else does come in and break up the marriage, and there's no way around that, at least find a way to equitably share the raising of the children.

A human life is a very different place when you can tell people what you need.

Danger lurks along the paths walked by our children and their parents. If they are to safely negotiate the journey with increasing strength and sensitivity and without suffering debilitating wounds, then wise, committed companions must join them on the way.

The church has a greater potential than any other institution for providing the community so desperately needed by persons of all ages; it is the means God designed to provide support and resources for life's journey.

God did not intend for a father and a mother to shoulder the full load of child rearing without the support of an extended family and a faith community. Will our faith communities connect with young people and become an extended family for them?

Parents and other adults give children a precious gift when they affirm them for who they are, not just for what they do.

If you want to kill yourself, do not use us as your knife.