{"author":"Anna White","author_id":"Anna+White","total_quotes":50,"quotes":[{"text":"A basic reality of life is that we all struggle. We hurt and have hurt other people. We all feel lost sometimes. This isn’t all we are, but it is a part of who we are. The only question I have when I’m with someone is, “Can they admit it? And will they let me admit it too?","author":"Anna White","tags":["christianity","faith","grace","honesty","hurt","journey","life","lost","memoir","pain","relationships","religion","sisterhood","struggle"],"id":1686,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"Maybe it’s not about having a beautiful day, but about finding beautiful moments. Maybe a whole day is just too much to ask. I could choose to believe that in every day, in all things, no matter how dark and ugly, there are shards of beauty if I look for them.","author":"Anna White","tags":["bad-day","choose-beauty","depression","everyday-beauty","loss","memoir","optimisism","seek-beauty","small-things","struggle"],"id":2244,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"My fear of being real, of being seen, paralyzes me into silence. I crave the touch and the connection, but I’m not always brave enough to open my hand and reach out. This is the great challenge: to be seen, accepted, and loved, I must first reveal, offer, and surrender.","author":"Anna White","tags":["acceptance","challenge","connection","faith","fear","friendship","grace","love","memoir","relationship","sisterhood","surrender"],"id":2391,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"Christmas is such a time of struggle anyway, crammed with busy and hurry and the expectation that you will be joyful, no matter what. Then, if you’re like me, when you just sit quietly, just be, and let yourself feel what you feel, the guilt creeps in. Because you’re alive and the world is big, and you should be feeling some freakin’ Christmas spirit.","author":"Anna White","tags":["bereavement","christmas","christmas-humor","christmas-spirit","guilt","holidays","loss","memoir","shame","struggle"],"id":17383,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"It is a beautiful and scary thing to sit open-handed and let all your plans float away like dust.","author":"Anna White","tags":["christian","faith","inspirational-life","memoir","parenting","parenting-chlidren","recovery"],"id":22873,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"The idea of practicing love is deeply appealing to me, because built right in is an acceptance of imperfection. There is an acknowledgment to myself that I am going to mess this up, an understanding that there is room to grow. Each of my failures just affirms the truth that we are all starting over and rising again.","author":"Anna White","tags":["dont-give-up","failure","imperfection","life","love","memoir","personal-growth","practicing","rising-again","trying-again"],"id":25014,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"The God I serve is able to save us both. To give us the winning lottery ticket so all our money problems will go away. To mend our broken hearts. To bring us close to those we love. He is able. He is able. He is able.But even if He doesn’t, do not bow to bitterness. Do not fall down onto your broken pieces and let them cut you to ribbons. Even if He doesn’t do all that He is able to do, all that we wish He would do, He is good.","author":"Anna White","tags":["bereavement","christianity","faith","god","grace","grieve","jesus","loss","memoir","religion","separation","struggle","suffering"],"id":25123,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"The shadow is dark and the woods are cold, but they are not endless. No matter how lost you are now, you are not lost forever. You are findable.Love just keeps on looking. Love is forever tries.","author":"Anna White","tags":["christianity","darkness","depression","faith","found","inspirational","lost","love","memoir","personal-growth","searching"],"id":26203,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"All I’m saying is that I don’t want to sort of fall in love with fifty different people. I’d rather find one person and fall completely, deeply in over my head.","author":"Anna White","tags":["falling-in-love"],"id":38526,"author_id":"Anna+White"},{"text":"There are lots of real reasons to decide to leave something or someone, but there are lots of other reasons that are less valid and less real and less about a relationship than our own minds: Fear (of screwing up, of being left, of not being good enough), restlessness, resistance to growing up, PMS, not knowing how to live without drama, fearing that you're getting happy, and happiness is boring. The thing that scared me the most was the knowledge that if I stayed, something was going to change, and that something was probably me. I didn't know what changed me would look like, or if I would like her more or less than I already did. Would I still recognize myself? Would I still be myself?","author":"Anna White","tags":["anniversary","change","divorce","happiness","marriage","memoir","personal-growth","relationship"],"id":48369,"author_id":"Anna+White"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":50,"pages":5,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}