"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Rebecca Lee and I are actually the same person.
"I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it."
"Maybe it was a simple matter of being attracted to what I couldn't have. Or maybe desire kicked in when it pleased without noticing the rules we lived and died by."
"I laid my head on his shoulder and wondered how he could stand me. In one short morning I had exhibited insane laughter, hidden lust, pissy behavior, self-pity, and hysterical crying. If I'd been trying to show him my worst sides, I could not have done a better job than this."
"The whole time we worked, I marveled at how mixed up people got when it came to love. I myself, for instance. It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes out of every hour, Zach, who was an impossibility. That's what I told myself give hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word impossibility is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."
"'I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily?...The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.'"
"'I'll write this all down for you,' I said. 'I'll put it in a story.' I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters."
"Where had I been that I didn't know about imaginary friends? I could see the point of it. How a lost part of yourself steps out and reminds you who you could be with a little work."
"'Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We're all so human....There is nothing perfect....There is only life.'"
"Drifting off to sleep, I thought about her. How nobody is perfect. How you just have to close your eyes and breathe out and let the puzzle of the human heart be what it is."
"I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it."
"Maybe it was a simple matter of being attracted to what I couldn't have. Or maybe desire kicked in when it pleased without noticing the rules we lived and died by."
"I laid my head on his shoulder and wondered how he could stand me. In one short morning I had exhibited insane laughter, hidden lust, pissy behavior, self-pity, and hysterical crying. If I'd been trying to show him my worst sides, I could not have done a better job than this."
"The whole time we worked, I marveled at how mixed up people got when it came to love. I myself, for instance. It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes out of every hour, Zach, who was an impossibility. That's what I told myself give hundred times: impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word impossibility is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."
"'I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily?...The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.'"
"'I'll write this all down for you,' I said. 'I'll put it in a story.' I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters."
"Where had I been that I didn't know about imaginary friends? I could see the point of it. How a lost part of yourself steps out and reminds you who you could be with a little work."
"'Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We're all so human....There is nothing perfect....There is only life.'"
"Drifting off to sleep, I thought about her. How nobody is perfect. How you just have to close your eyes and breathe out and let the puzzle of the human heart be what it is."