Quotes About Vulnerability

sometimes we have to find the courage to take off our shoes and feel it all. Even the bad stuff.

God, what is going on? Why are You leaving me with the one man who has the power to break me?

The sound of her breathing reminded me, as it so often did, of how vulnerable she was. And how vulnerable we were because of how much we loved her. The fear - that something could happen to her at any moment, something I'd be helpless to stop - had become so omnipresent in my life that I sometimes pictured it growing, like a third arm, out of the center of my chest.

She had the air of someone clinging to a wall of soap.

She felt like weeping. She didn't know why at first, but then it hit her. He knew her. He knew her, this man she'd married, this man she'd committed herself to walking through this life with. He knew her. And—wonder of wonders—he was still here.

Happiness made Marv anxious because he knew it didn't last. But happiness destroyed was worth wrapping your arms around because it always hugged you back.

The loneliness of another can be shocking when it lays itself bare without warning.

Everyone wants to tell you something -anything, everything - about themselves and they just go on and on and on. But when it comes time to show you who they are? Their shit is weak, Nadia. Their shit is lacking. And they just cover it up by talking more, by explaining away what can't be explained away. And then they go on talking more shit about someone else.

You've always had a soft heart, son. You just hide it better than most. Danny shrugged. Starting to hide it from myself, then, I guess. Always the danger, that. Then one day, sure, you can't remember where you left all those pieces you tried so hard to hold on. Or why you work so hard at the holding.

People were lost and people were scared and their lynch ropes couldn't reach bankers or stockbrokers, so they looked for targets closer to home.

and two men standing up top, weeping like children because they'd somehow never known the world could get this bad.

You've mislaid your trust in the past, had your faith in people broken, shattered even. You've been betrayed. Lied to. So you've chosen not to trust. And this protects you to some extent, I'm sure. But it also isolates you from the rest of humanity. You are disconnected. You are displaced. And the only way to find your way back to a place, to a connection, is to trust again.

and it blew open a chamber of her heart that refuses to close no matter how hard she presses down on it.

I am still afraid. But I am not terrified.

That's the thing about being a victim; you start to think it'll happen to you on a regular basis. Suddenly everything looks suspect and any brightness you may have noticed the day before has dissipated into the shadows. And the shadows are everywhere. It's living with the reality of your own vulnerability, and it sucks.

Jimmy looked back over at his wife, and Celeste could feel the tenderest of aches in the look. She could feel another teardrop piece of Jimmy's heart detach and free-fall down the inside of his chest.

Safety is an illusion we sell to children to help them sleep. Then I wanted to be a child.

Then how did he manage to deceive you? Because I let him. And why would you do that? Because I wanted to feel safe. Safety is an illusion we sell to children to help them sleep. Then I wanted to be a child.

I'll have to lift your penis now to grease around it.

It occurred to me that falling in love was like jumping off a cliff. You know it's gonna hurt like hell, but you do it anyway, hoping you'll sprout wings and fly. I was still waiting to see if I would plunge to an agonizing death or grow wings and soar.

I know I'll never find anyone who makes me feel the way he does. I can't believe I've gotten in so deep, so soon. I mean, this shouldn't' be such a big deal; we haven't even slept together, for chrissake. I can't help but wonder, once again, if I'm dodging the bullet or losing the love of my life.

He slips his hand onto the nape of my neck, runs his long fingers through my tangled and gently kisses my forehead. I close my eyes. "I'm in so much trouble here," I mumble. But I don't have the wherewithal to resist as he presses his determined lips to mine.

I was acutely aware of every part of him, skin to skin. I closed my eyes. It had never felt so right, so inevitable, yet I could already feel heartbreak waiting to take center stage.

Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.