Quotes About Vulnerability

real love seeks to find authentic life, to uncurl and blossom.

I know that safety is always unattainable. You're never safe.

The big eat the little. The strong eat the weak. I know where I stand in this chain, but I don't want to be eaten. I'm tired of being the weak one who get pushed around. The big question is, when the time comes, how hard will I fight?

Same thing, says Levon. People mistake your kindness for weakness.

She doesn't have an answer and when I step closer, slowly bringing her body against me and enfolding her in my arms, she crumples onto me, giving me her weakness. I give her back my strength. I don't know exactly what demons haunt her, but I'm beginning to suspect they're darker than anyone's imagined. I'm in too deep now to get out.

a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the perfect.

It's often at our most broken that we realize how loved we really are.

What I think we as the church lack, though, is a place to talk about how things really are now. In our desire to be an inspiration to one another we often veil what is true, because what is true is not always inspirational. But hurting believers whose lives are in tatters often need real help. If we were able to put aside our need for approval long enough to be authentic, then, surely, we would be living as the church.

I have often found anger more comfortable than fear. Anger gives me the illusion of control, while fear leaves me naked and exposed.

when corps commanders started toppling, alive one minute and dead the next, struck down as if by a bolt of blue-sky lightning, who was safe? All down the line, from brigadiers to privates, spirits were heavy with intimations of mortality.

I feel like a carton of eggs holding up an elephant.

there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them...

The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know. If you care about something enough, it's going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad.

Like officer Dave.He's never said much about his life, but I can tell he's scarred. And he knows I'm scarred too. The wounded always recognize the wounded. We can smell each other.

Standing on the shore, I prayed for my dead. I praised them. I stupidly hoped that the lake would heal my small wounds. Then I stripped off my clothes and waded naked into the water. Jesus, I don't want to die today or tomorrow, but I don't want to live forever.

I was emotionally erect.

And he only talks about his dreams with me. And I only talk about my dreams with him.

I can't remember how to cry.

It made me cry for myself.

After years of sleeping together, I still love to stay up late after you've passed into sleep so I can hear you say things you would never repeat when awake. It's like loving two people, each distinct and beautiful, as night from day as you from me, all of us together forming a continuous grace.

If you care about something enough, it's going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear.

We sat there in silence. A masculine silence. Thick and strong. Oh, I'm full of shit. We were terrified and clueless.

I'm dying from about ninety-nine kinds of shame

He'd been just like all of the other performers in the world. He'd wanted to be universally loved. He wasn't all that different from Victor, Thomas, or even Junior. They all got onstage and wanted the audience to believe in them. They all wanted the audience to throw their room keys, panties, confessions, flowers, and songs onstage. They wanted the audience to trust them with their secrets.