Quotes About Vulnerability

Through words we come to know the other person--and to be known. This knowing is at the heart of our deepest longings for intimacy and connection with others. How relationships unfold with the most important people in our lives depends on courage and clarity in finding voice.

I've yet to meet the person who aspires to be phony or invisible in her closest relationships.

Angry people may appear strong, willful, or certain, but be assured that beneath the veneer are fear and loneliness and insecurity and pain. Especially, there is pain.

Passive-aggressive people have not developed enough trust in others to be truly open. In fact, they shun opportunities to reveal who they really are because they feel that there is too much risk that they will lose power if they reveal themselves.

Human infants," writes psychologist Martin Seligman, "begin life more helpless than infants of any other species. In the course of the next decade or two, some acquire a sense of mastery over their surroundings; others acquire a profound sense of helplessness.

We would never let anyone else see when we were wounded, but we'd show each other. We both had things to hide from our families, for example.

One of my hardest moments was unveiling

hands, gently toying with her sensitive nipples. Gasping, she sagged against him, knowing he wouldn't let her fall. One strong hand slid down her side to her hip, where he grasped her possessively; then he pushed her back to lean against the wall. Kissing his way down her neck and nuzzling into the hollow of her throat, he murmured tender, sexy promises, the hunger in his voice making

cried. She had at last been releasing those closed-up boxes of dark emotion that he suspected had been building in her head for a very long time. She'd needed to let them go. The catalyst for the final emotional meltdown had been a poor pup someone had left on her front porch; he suspected she'd been ready to break anyway. He was just glad he had been here when she did. "Dean?" she murmured, not even

I wondered how it would feel to be touched and not be afraid.

I wondered if she would have left me if there had been more inside of me to love, or if I just could have needed less.

God," she said, "by the time we're old enough to have sex, we're already too ashamed to be touched. Ain't that a crime?

I had been at the center of her world; she had become my whole world. As my universe shrank, I needed her to be everything for me, and in return I longed to be everything she needed. Neither of us could live up to the expectations.

Remember when you held me and told me you would protect me, you wouldn't let anyone hurt me?" I winced. Milli put her hand reassuringly on my back. "What you said wasn't wrong, baby. That's what everyone wants to hear when they've been hurt. The only problem was, you believed it yourself. You can't protect me, sweetheart. I can't protect you. I think you're having trouble with that lately.

Falling in love isn't the problem" she murmured. "its the staying in love part that i don't have much faith in.

As women, wea re given a great give: our purity. And everything that makes us who we are emotionally - our feminine nature, our sensitivity, our vulnerability, and our desire to give ourselves fully to one man - is part of that gift. Our purity is a treasure. it is so much more than just our physical virginity, it starts with who we are on the inside.

In our culture it is seen as a sign of weakness to actually seek help from someone else. And yet, as Christians, God designed us to need each other - He designed us to lean upon the body of Christ for support, prayer, wisdom, and even practical help.

They drank until they couldn't walk without holding on to her. She asked them for money then, money to send back to Emma at Towac: for the little girls. Then they stumbled up the steps to the Hudson Hotel. If she took long enough in the toilet, they usually passed out on the bed.

Their mouths were wet and soured with beer, and when they pushed themselves down on her, they felt small and soft between her thighs. She stared at the stains on the ceiling, and waited until they gave up or fell asleep, and then she rolled out from under them.

Sapped of strength, I discover a self that doesn't rely on strength.

Emotional expression governs, and changes, interaction. Anger, for example, produces distance, whereas vulnerability disarms. Thus, interpersonal conflict can be resolved by changing what people express

you would only laugh at me, not because my thoughts were stupid, but because I was so foolish as to attempt to tell them to you. If

When deceit and attack become a regular part of marital interactions, there is no clear communication, no resolution to the problem, and no healing. It's impossible to have a close, loving relationship with someone you can't trust, can't talk with, or who won't take a look at himself when he hurts you.

You can sweep broken glass under the carpet, but eventually it will work its way through the rug and cut your foot.