Quotes About Vulnerability

if I've learned anything through all this, it's that you can't build walls around the people you care about. You can't do it to keep them near or to keep them safe. Even if they could stand the prison, that kind of control is still an illusion. To fate, the walls are made of air

I think control is an illusion we build to protect ourselves, and the larger we try to make that circle, the weaker it gets. We can't control our own destinies, much less someone else's. And even the illusion is so fragile, any change can destroy it

I am tired of hiding, tired of misspent and knotted energies, tired of the hypocrisy, and tired of acting as though I have something to hide.

All I trust is whistling in the dark. from section 3 of "Radiantly Indefensible," The American Poetry Review (vol. 49, no. 3, May/June 2020)

When she didn't let go, when she buried her freckled nose in his chest and snuggled closer and when she shivered from the cold, he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and wrapping his arms around her. Hesitant, he lowered his face into her hair and breathed deep.

Liam tossed the top half of the sleeping bag aside and snagged the end of her shirt and jacket. Her jeans were next, the moonlight bright enough he could see the masses of freckles on her pale skin and the starkness of Carly's matching black lace underwear. "Do you always wear things like that?" "They make me feel sexy." She didn't need anything to be sexy. "Any sexier and I'd keel over now.

She turned her head and rubbed her cheek against the surprisingly velvety feel of his inner arm, the muscle tensing even more against her face when she pressed a kiss to his skin. In response, she felt him flex inside her. "Caroline." She'd always hated her name. It was too old-fashioned, too hokey and very grandma-ish. But when Liam said it like that, she actually liked it. He made her name, he made her, feel like the sexiest, most beautiful woman on earth.

What they all knew was this: Life was fragile.

The needy child voice inside me said, If she says you're a nut, then you must be a nut. She's your mother, the one who always tells the brutal truth.

When a great house is about to crumble, a stick cannot keep it from falling.

Those who trespass in others' souls will always get burned in the end.

Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking.

Though tears can be hidden, all hearts break.

Don't you get it? It doesn't matter where I go. Here, back there, France, the North Pole, it doesn't matter. I'll never be safe again. You could build a castle around me and seal it up and I'd still be what I am. And what I am is scared.

Some people hurt so much they can't take what they need, even when someone wants to give it to them. (106)

People blush when one of their core truths is revealed.

Loving anyone, anywhere, at any time, leaves you infinitely vulnerable at every single moment.

the horrific fact that our lives and those of the people we love are impermanent and exquisitely fragile, that any of us can cease to exist without warning, that loving anyone, anywhere, at any time, leaves you infinitely vulnerable at every single moment. (20)

Let yourself feel the pain you've been avoiding, and you will become powerful in equal measure.

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Creating content that gets read and builds trust requires you to adopt and communicate the same core values that help you build relationships in the physical world. Here's my formula: GENEROSITY + VULNERABILITY + ACCOUNTABILITY + CANDOR = TRUST

I believe that every conversation you have is an invitation to risk revealing the real you.

I am becoming very hard on the outside and even softer on the inside.

Someone who comes to me cautiously, knowing that falling in love is easy and staying in love is hard, that passion dies and most relationships are doomed before they start.