“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.”
Camerlengo: So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child’s pain, you would choose to show you love by letting him learn his own lessons?
Chatrand: Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It’s how we learn.
Camerlengo: Exactly.”
“In my arms is a woman who has given me a Skywatcher’s Cloud Chart, a woman who knows all my secrets, a woman who knows just how messed up my mind is, how many pills I’m on, and yet she allows me to hold her anyway. ”
″ ‘But the happiest people are the ones who understand that good things occur when one allows them to.’ And that was that. That was all it took to turn my life on its head.”
“She came from a background where nothing was ever good enough. And that was something that weighed heavy on her. But in our house together, it was a sense of just trying stuff and allowing each other to fail and to be excited about things. That was liberating for her. It was exciting to see her grow and both of us grow and change together. But that’s also the hard part: growing without growing apart or changing without it scaring the other person. I still find myself having conversations with her in my mind. Rehashing old arguments and defending myself against something she said about me.”
“Habit will be your champion. When you train the mind to think one way and one way only, when you refuse to allow it to think in another, that will produce great strength in battle.”
“She’s the only person I would allow to be shrunk to microscopic size and explore me in a tiny submersible machine. She is wonderful and beautiful and sensitive and funny and sexy.”
“Mom,” I said, shaking my head. “how could you?”
” “How could I what, Peter?” Mom asked.
“How could you let him do it?”
“Let who do what, Peter?” Mom asked.
“LET FUDGE EAT DRIBBLE.” I screamed.”