“We know our lives are chaotic, but we insist that everything happen in an orderly way and be logically conceived.”

“We read novels because we need stories; we crave them; we can’t live without telling them and hearing them. Stories are how we make sense of our lives and of the world. When we’re distressed and go to therapy, our therapist’s job is to help us tell our story. Life doesn’t come with plots; it’s messy and chaotic; life is one damn, inexplicable thing after another. And we can’t have that. We insist on meaning. And so we tell stories so that our lives make sense.”

“I think it is more tha6 the sea is a reminder of how little control we have over our own lives no matter how carefully we try to plan and order them. Everything changes in ways we least expect, and everything is frighteningly vast. We are so small.”

“If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.”

“the universe has a place and purpose for everything and everyone. sometimes we cannot know what that place is. or what the purpose of everything that happens to us will be. that is why we must allow the natural order of things to occur.”

“We cannot let go of the past enough to live in the present unless we are able to grieve our losses. We must deeply feel our emotional pain in order to accept that what is happening is not what we wanted.”