Maybe we don't have the same definition of about what's beautiful. So define it. Define true beauty.

From her dubious tone alone, I could see how Karin had no idea how terrifying words spoken quietly could be. How words chosen precisely to wreak maximum damage ticked like a bomb in your head, but exploded in your heart hours later, leaving you scarred and changed.

There is a time to study a map passionately, obsessively. To see where you've gone, where others have gone before you. To commit to memory every obstacle, every danger. Shakespeare had a term for this obsession: mappery. But there is a time, too, when you say, come dragons. I challenge you to find me.

Forgiving others is easier when I remember that I'm human and stupid, too.

What was so miraculous about a relationship that was based more on my gratitude than on mutual self respect?

Silence, too, can be torture.

You would be surprised what two hours of daily exercise and five hundred stomach crunches can do for you.