MAYA HAWKE

“I am trying to see things in perspective. My dog wants a bite of my peanut butter chocolate chip bagel. I know she cannot have this, because chocolate makes dogs very sick. My dog does not understand this. She pouts and wraps herself around my leg like a scarf and purrs and tries to convince me to give her just a tiny bit. When I do not give in, she eventually gives up and lays in the corner, under the piano, drooping and sad. I hope the universe has my best interest in mind like I have my dog’s. When I want something with my whole being, and the universe withholds it from me, I hope the universe thinks to herself: “Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants, but she does not understand how it will hurt.” – THEORIES ABOUT THE UNIVERSE by Blythe Baird

“Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?” – Rumi

“Feel it. The thing that you don’t want to feel. Feel it, and be free.” – Nayyirah Waheed

“When I say you’re going to be okay, I mean it. I’m not saying it because it’s what you might want to hear, I’m saying it because I know it’s the truth. You’re going to be okay. You’ve gotten through the past rock bottom visits. You’ve made it through a broken heart before. You have said it yourself; you get the chills all over your body when you feel that deep sense of pride while remembering those times when you didn’t think you’d smile again. But you did. And you thrived. You’ve made it here. You are resilient. You are strong. You are alive. And you are meant to be here. Things might not make sense now, and they don’t have to. Some of the most magnificent works began in an indecisive and uncertain artist’s mind. This is a piece in the grand scheme of a beautiful puzzle. You are going to be okay. I say this not because I hope it’s true, but because I know it’s true.”

“Things will remind you of him, like the restaurant you two used to go to or your song will play on the radio and all the memories you both shared will find themselves crawling back into your veins and into your ribcage and sometimes it will find its way into your mind and you will become blinded to everything else around you. But please, remember that every ending is a brand new beginning. It may take a month or it may take 5 years, but one day that song won’t make you clench your teeth while it’s playing, and you will be able to eat at that restaurant, and sit there without even remembering the touch of his body next to you. You won’t be able to remember what it was like to be there with him. He will become a distant memory and as time passes, the memories will fade and be replaced by the new guy who you share way more with than just a restaurant and a song, but you share a life with him, and he makes you a better you, and he makes sure you never fall asleep crying, but that you fall asleep smiling.“

“If he truly loves you, he will love you when you are an ocean breeze, but also when you are a summer storm. You were not made to be loved in parts, you were meant to be loved as a whole.” – If He Truly Loves You, Nikita Gill 

“In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer.” – Unknown

“Things didn’t work out because, well, greater things were in the works. It’s so difficult while we’re blind and hurting and don’t know which way is up. But, if you have faith in anything, have faith in the fact that the universe has a beautiful way of straightening things out far better than we ever could. You may not see it today or tomorrow, but you will look back in a few years and be absolutely perplexed and awed by how every little thing added up and brought you somewhere wonderful– or where you always wanted to be. You will be grateful that things didn’t work out the way you once wanted them to.”

“When you meet that person, one of your soulmates, let the connection or relationship be what it is. It may be five minutes, five hours, five days, five months, or five years. A lifetime, maybe. Let it manifest itself, the way it is meant to. It has an organic destiny. This way if it stays or if it leaves, you will be softer from having been loved this authentically. Souls come into, return, open, and sweep through your life for a myriad of reasons, let them be who and what they are meant to be.”

“Well, you’ll break his heart and he’ll break yours. But you won’t forget each other, even if one day you walk past him and neither of you acknowledges it. That’s the thing about first loves, you never forget them. They are the only person who gets your whole untouched heart. They get all the love you’ve saved up for this moment and they get to keep it forever. You may never speak again but you can guarantee that you can still picture his eyes looking into yours as he said those three words, the way he kissed you afterwards and couldn’t stop repeating those words over and over until you were both too tired to speak. However you’ll also always remember the last time he said those three words, and told you that he was going to come back for you, the way he made you believe that a happy ending did exist for both of you. Those memories will come back to you in waves, all the firsts and all the lasts, the good and the bad, but what’s important is the fact that your first love is just that, the first but not the last.”

“Do not allow him to consume you. If he does not call, go to sleep. If he does not message, put your phone away and have a fantastic day anyway. If he acts distant when you are with him and refuses to tell you what is wrong, don’t wait for him, go home and do something you love. If he tries to insinuate you do not need your friends now that you have him, spend more time with your friends. If he tries to teach you a lesson through the silent treatment, ignore him completely. If he plays with your feelings constantly, walk away from him. If he acts like your body is his entitlement when you are not ready, walk away from him. If he says terrible, unforgivable things and threatens to leave you after every argument, walk away from him. If he forbids you from doing anything you love, walk away from him. If he claims ownership of your accomplishments, walk away from him. If he demeans you or disrespects your being a girl and refuses to stop when you tell him it hurts, walk away from him. I cannot stress this enough, you live for yourself first. He is a secondary character in the story of your life. Do not allow him to turn you into a secondary character in your own book.” – Nikita Gill, Advice for Teenage Girls Finding Their Way Through Love

“When a thing has served its purpose, it will go away. If you try to hold on to something that has already fulfilled its purpose in your life, you are going to hurt yourself. If holding on is disturbing your peace of mind, it makes sense to let go. Surrender all attachments to people and things that you have been struggling to hold on to.”

“Someday you’ll be exceedingly thankful for certain things that didn’t work out the way you once hoped.”

“Tell me about your first love. No, I don’t mean him. I’m not referring to those endless waves of compromise that soaked you with self loath and confusion. I’m not referring to the way he would sweet talk you into a bitter reliance on his words. I’m not referring to the girl buried alongside a novel of regrets and sins. I mean you. The woman you are now. The flower that bloomed through dirt and grime. The sun that rose after a cryptic night. The Phoenix that was reborn after the fire demolished her to ashes. When you tell me about your first love, tell me about the time you fell in love with yourself.”

“It will hurt. And then one day it won’t. And until then, I will allow this pain to let me grow.”

“Detach from needing to have things work out a certain way. The Universe is perfect and there are no failures. Give yourself the gift of detaching from your worries and trust that everything is happening” – Orin

“pull the hurt out of you, even if it is excruciating, especially when it is excruciating. you must decide to be brave before attempting to heal.” – Noor Shirazie

"Understand that the universe is giving you challenges to help you to become the greatest version of yourself.”

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama

“WHEN YOU ARE ASHES REMEMBER THIS: They will insult you, hurt you, defeat you, betray you, injure you, set you aflame and watch you burn. But they will not, shall not, cannot destroy you. Because you, like Rome, were built on ashes, and you, like a phoenix, know how to rise and resurrect.” – Nikita Gill

“Someday you’re going to look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You’ll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“God says, ‘The reason some people have turned against you and walked away from you without reason, has nothing to do with you. It is because I have removed them from your life because they cannot go where I am taking you next. They will only hinder you in your next level because they have already served their purpose in your life. Let them go and keep moving. Greater is coming.’”

“Learn to trust the journey even when you do not understand it.”

“Sometimes life will test you but remember this: When you walk up a mountain, your legs get stronger.”

“I wish you would stop apologizing for having a heart that feels everything so deeply. It’s a gift, wear it proudly.”

“Let it go. Something beautiful wants to grow in its place.”

“It’s not about getting over and letting go. It’s about honoring what happened. You met a person who awoke something in you. A fire ignited. The work is to be grateful. Grateful every day that someone crossed your path and left a mark on you.” – Miriam Johnson

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” – Maya Angelou

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“I hope we last. I hope we do. But if we don’t, this is how I want you to remember me: I want you to remember me curled up, listening to the sound of your heartbeat and tracing maps across your skin. Remember me laughing at your jokes, even the stupid ones. Remember me in hysterics for absolutely no reason and in tears because one time you made me so sad neither of us thought I’d recover. Remember me brave, that time you held my hand and I thought I was going to die; remember me scared and gentle and delicate and breakable - only for you though, only for you. Remember me happy, and all the ridiculous ways I tried to get your attention. Remember the way I was too stubborn to talk to you and how absolutely insane it drove the both of us. Remember all the firsts and how they were so delightful we went back for seconds and thirds and fourths. Remember the songs you couldn’t stop listening to and the childish dreams you allowed yourself about the future. If it’s any consolation I allowed myself to have them too. If it comes to it I don’t want you to remember the ending. Remember the beginning. Remember the first time you knew. “

“You are still growing on the days when you feel empty.”

“Not everything is supposed to become something beautiful and long-lasting. Sometimes people come into your life to show you what is right and what is wrong, to show you who you can be, to teach you to love yourself, to make you feel better for a little while, or to just be someone to walk with at night and spill your life to. Not everyone is going to stay forever, and we still have to keep on going and thank them for what they’ve given us.” ― Emery Allen

"And like the moon, we must go through phases of emptiness to feel full again.”

“What is meant for you, will reach you even if it is beneath two mountains. What isn’t meant for you, won’t reach you even if it is between your two lips.”

“I am building a house; where the floor is made up of strength, where the walls are crafted of ambition, where the roof is a masterpiece of forgiveness. I am building myself.” – Noor Unnahar

“Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.” - Albert Camus, The Fall

“The rage you feel? Listen to me carefully. It’s a gift. Use it, but don’t let anyone see it.” - Boardwalk Empire