Quotes About Vulnerability

We turned onto the last landing. Going out with this guy, I thought, would involve a lot of silly laughter, some wit--the buzz of his whispered wisecracks in my ear. But there would be as well his willingness to reveal, or more his inability to conceal, that he had been silently rehearsing my name as he climbed the stairs behind me. There would be his willingness to bestow upon me the power to reassure him. He would trust me with his happiness.

Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings.

You cannot let your parents anywhere near your real humiliations.

Come apart in my mouth.

though suffering rises up and shames me.

At any moment a force from nowhere could rip me out of my life. I could die of traffic or weather, I could die of war or my heart.

I'm hungry, I'm sick, I'm wounded.

I have to cover up a lot of parts of me. Everyone does.

It is an accident that you are well-off, powerful, and content. Would I feel stronger if I saw you weak?

I'm trying to make a girl fall in love with me; I'm afraid it won't work, but it's a way of making my love take an outer shape.

I am so fragile I can't speak.

I want to be locked in this situation where he threatens me then tells me je t'aime.

and their hearts are already eroded and I too

what a nervous readiness attached to its lament

He reached across the table and put both his cold hands on my face. Those hands that had—what did he say?—"opened doors of perception and windows of imagination and broken shackles of anxiety" were soft.

Between a man and a woman there was always one person who was stronger than the other one. That doesn't mean the weaker one doesn't love the stronger.

Deserts unclutter the soul. The hot desert sun vaporizes all manner of luxuries. Then the cold, shelterless nights expose the essential guts of life. I needed to eat, to sleep, to be protected, and to not be alone. Lent had come half a year early. God asked me to fast mental and physical strength. He invited me into holy weakness. I found Jesus there.

We all guard against sins of commission and we are vigilant toward sins of omission. But achievements—even in small doses—can make us vulnerable to sins of addition: adding niceties and luxuries to our list of basic needs, adding imaginations onto the strong back of vision, adding self-satisfaction to the purity of peace.

That though passageway came with a surprising revelation. When life forces you to face yourself, what awaits in the mirror is a gift: vulnerability. Your heart is pierced. You're broken open. You're hyper-aware of what you're feeling.

I've spent so many years withholding parts of myself, sacrificing my spirit to make others feel comfortable. But now, I'm done with pretending, with living in a prison of my own creation. I'm done with dimming my light.

I can show weakness. I can be real. And when I reveal my true heart, not everyone is going to approve. What I know now is that I don't need them to.

I want to know who I am and accept every part of that identity. I am frightened and I am fearless. I am weak and a warrior. I am uncertain and I am confident. And by learning to embrace the paradox in all of it, I am more myself.

Love me like you'll never see me again.

When life forces you to face yourself, what awaits in the mirror is a gift: vulnerability. Your heart is pierced. You're broken open. You're hyperaware of what you're feeling.