Quotes About Vulnerability

We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy.

Despair can come from deep grief, but it can also be a defense against the risks of bitter disappointment and shattering heartbreak. Resignation and cynicism are easier, more self-soothing postures that do not require raw vulnerability and tragic risk of hope. To choose hope is to step firmly forward into the howling wind, baring one's chest to the elements, knowing that, in time, the storm will pass.

When I feel ashamed, it means I feel there isn't just something wrong with what I've done, there is something wrong with who I am. Shame is often a hidden emotion and it can be paralyzing in its power.

Meet me here Speak my name I am not your enemy I am your teacher I may even be your friend Let us tell our truth together, you and I My name is anger: I say you have been wronged My name is shame: my story is your hidden pain My name is fear: my story is vulnerability My name is resentment: I say things should have been different My name is grief My name is depression My name is heartache My name is anxiety I have many names And many lessons I am not your enemy I am your teacher

The way I look at it, you should feel glad that Han found out about the bad thing. It's the only way to know if someone can love you— if they still love you even after they know about the bad thing. Or the twenty-eight bad things. All of it.

For so many years, for so long, I have been so many things, so many different men. But here, he said, so softly I could barely hear him, here in the dark, with you… I have no name.

I dinna know what's a sadist. And if I forgive you for this afternoon, I reckon you'll forgive me, too, as soon as ye can sit down again. As for my pleasure... His lip twitched. I said I would have to punish you. I did not say I wasna going to enjoy it. He crooked a finger at me. Come here.

I want to hold you hard to me and kiss you, and never let you go. I want to take you to my bed and use you like a whore, 'til I forget that I exist. And I want to put my head in your lap and weep like a child. The mouth turned up at one corner, and a blue eye opened slitwise. Unfortunately, he said, I can't do any but the last of those without fainting or being sick again.

All I want, is for you to love me. Not because of what I can do or what I look like, or because I love you - just because I am.

For if you feel for me as i do for you - then I am asking you to tear out your heart and live without it.

You'll lie wi' me now, he said quietly. And I shall use ye as I must. And if you'll have your revenge for it, then take it and welcome, for my soul is yours, in all the black corners of it.

Do ye want me? he whispered. Sassenach, will ye take me - and risk the man that I am, for the sake of the man ye knew?

Sassenach, I've been stabbed, bitten, slapped, and whipped since supper - which I didna get to finish. I dinna like to scare children an I dinna like to flog men, and I've had to do both. I've two hundred English camped three miles away, and no idea what to do about them. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm sore. If you've anything like womanly sympathy about ye, I could use a bit!

Harmless as a setting dove, he agreed. I'm too hungry to be a threat to anything but breakfast. Let a stray bannock come within reach, though, and I'll no answer for the consequences.

I am a coward, damn you! I couldna tell ye, for fear ye would leave me, and unmanly thing that I am, I thought I couldna bear that!

Our lovemaking was always risk and promise-for if he held my life in his hands when he lay with me, I held his soul, and knew it.

He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surface, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces.

He reached out a long arm and drew me in, holding me close against him. I put my arms around him and felt the quiver of his muscles, exhausted, and the sheer hard strength still in him, that would hold him up, no matter how tired he might be. We stood quite still for some time, my cheek against his chest and his face against my hair, drawing strength from each other for whatever might come next. Being married.

I wanted ye from the first I saw ye – but I loved ye when you wept in my arms and let me comfort you, that first time at Leoch.

I know what it felt . . . like when I . . . thought you were dead, and- A small gasp for breath, and her eyes locked on his. And I wouldn't do that to you. Her bosom fell and her eyes closed. It was a long moment before he could speak. Thank ye, Sassenach, he whispered, and held her small, cold hand between his own and watched her breathe until the moon rose.

He shook his head and squeezed my hand tight. You are my courage, as I am your conscience, he whispered, You are my heart-- I am your compassion. We are neither of us whole, alone. Do ye not know that, Sassenach? --Jamie

You're beautiful to me, Jamie," I said softly, at last. "So beautiful, you break my heart.

Ye've no idea how lovely ye look, stark naked, wi' the sun behind you. All gold, like ye were dipped in it.

I thought he said you weren't drunk if you could find your arse with both hands." He eyed me appraisingly. "I hate to tell ye, Sassenach, but it's not your arse ye've got hold of—it's mine." "That's all right," I assured him. "We're married. Share and share alike. One flesh; the priest said so.