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"I'd heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran on TV, featuring some dragged-out woman with a limp perm and big, painted-on circles under her eyes, downing vodka and sobbing uncontrollably. "We can't heal you at Evergreen", the very somber voiceover said. "But we can help you to heal yourself." It had become our own running joke, applicable to almost anything. "Hey Cass, "I'd say, "hand me that toothpaste." "Caitlin," she'd say, her voice dark and serious. "I can't hand you the toothpaste. But I CAN help you hand the toothpaste to yourself."
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"Sometimes people in abusive situations think they're responsible for the other person's happiness or that they're going to fix them and make them feel better. The practice of equanimity teaches that it's not all up to you to make someone else happy."

"I managed to ask a question that had been burning inside me. "Do you still love her? Rose? Along with not knowing what it felt like to be in love, I also didn't know how long it took to recover from love.Adrian's smile faded. His gaze turned inward. "Yes. No. It's hard to get over someone like that. She had a huge effect on me, both good and bad. That's hard to move past. I try not to think about her much in terms of love and hate. Mostly I'm trying to get on with my life. With mixed results, unfortunately."

"It's affirming that we can look at any experience from the fullness of our being and get past the shame we carry."

"When we respond to our pain and suffering with love, understanding, and acceptance-for ourselves, as well as others- over time, we can let go of our anger, even when we've been hurt to the core. But that doesn't mean we ever forget."

"You have shared your secret. I think you will find it to be an unburdening in many other ways. You have very considerable natural advantages. You have nothing to fear from life. A day will come when these recent unhappy years may seem no more than that cloud-stain over there upon Chesil Bank. You shall stand in sunlight-and smile at your own past sorrows."

"When we are in constant pain, we cannot empathize with others, nor can we help them. It is only when we allow ourselves to open up to our own nourishment that we are free to feed the rest of the world. And thus, to attend to one's own suffering is the most selfless act."
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"It took a lot of work to be perfect. If you didn't want to break a sweat, there was no point in even bothering."


"It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be."


"But as long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential."


"Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded."


"I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good."


"He had a nice smile. Seeing it, I felt like I'd won a prize, because he was so sparing with them."


"She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the thick makeup, they were still dark-rimmed., haunted, and sad. Most of all though, they were familiar. The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all. I'd spent a summer with those same eyes-scared, lost, confused-staring back at me. I would have known them anywhere."


"Here was a boy who liked flaws, who saw them not as failings but as strengths. Who knew such a person could exist, or what would have happened if we'd found each other under different circumstances? Maybe in a perfect world. But not in this one."
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