bshocommons - Tumblr blog

[bshocommons]

Oh, the last time how clearly you see everything; as though a magnifying light had been turned on it. And you grieve because you hadn’t held it tighter when you had it every day. What had Granma Mary Rommely said? “To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[bshocommons]

Her thoughts were like torn bits of paper blowing around.

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[bshocommons]

You betcha they’d live, thought Francie grimly. It takes a lot of doing to die.

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[bshocommons]

She had the knowledge that she was small but she lacked the courage to be otherwise.

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[bshocommons]

The path back to normal life is indescribably long once death has swept the feet out from under those of us who are left. Grief is a wild animal that drags us so far out into the darkness that we can’t imagine ever getting home again. Ever laughing again. It hurts in such a way that you can never really figure out if it actually passes or if you just get used to it.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

There are many beautiful trees in Beartown. We sometimes say that’s because a new one grows every time we bury someone. That’s why the births are listed alongside the deaths in the local paper, so we never run out of either trees or people. It doesn’t matter. We don’t want a new tree. Another person. We just want this one back.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

An ordinary life is long if you live it together with someone else.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

All sports are fairy tales, that’s why we lose ourselves in them.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

His words are dry twigs, snapping under the slightest weight.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

Exclusion is a form of exhaustion that eats its way into your skeleton.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

It’s so easy to think that what we post online is like raising your voice in a living room when it’s actually more like shouting from the rooftops. Our fantasy worlds always have consequences for other people’s realities.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

Maya has learned to master her own skin, not let it burst with the fire that’s burning inside her. She imagines that if she can just fool everyone else, she might eventually be able to fool herself.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

Their daughter can hear them arguing, even when they aren’t saying a word.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

We rarely take out our anger on those who deserve it; we just take it out on whoever is standing closest.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

People say that leadership is about making difficult decisions, unpalatable and unpopular decisions. “Do your job,” leaders are constantly being told. The impossible part of the job is, of course, that a leader can carry on leading only as long as someone follows him, and people’s reactions to leadership are always the same: if a decision of yours benefits me, you’re fair, and if the same decision harms me, you’re a tyrant. The truth about most people is as simple as it is unbearable: we rarely want what is best for everyone; we mostly want what’s best for ourselves.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You

[bshocommons]

that’s how we function, for better or worse: we always define different periods by their worst moments.

Fredrik Backman, Us Against You