Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Her mind still had a habit of tossing up painful memories, a reminder, she supposed, to keep moving forward

She had finally learned to be by herself in public without thinking about what others were thinking of her. It was a relief to live from the inside out at long last

I guess that’s what life should feel like; setting off on a long car ride with all your worries and hopes strapped around you, the people who love you most frantically waving you off as you go

He smiles and begins to retreat, then turns back to me one more time. “You want to know one of my personal favorite prayers?”

“What?”

“Wow,” he says

artfully sidestepping any responsibility, then showing up last-minute to offer a thoughtful critique.

Perhaps you kiss me and I get a cold sore. Perhaps you punch me and bring me a new perspective on pain. If I have no preference, the outcome shows me what is beneficial or harmful in my life. I don’t impose that value

No expectations. No preferences. If you prefer one outcome over another in life, you will likely be disappointed. I prefer nothing and am always surprised

The trick is to learn when you’re eating to fill the heart instead of the stomach. Feeding the stomach, she said, is easy. That’s just diet. It’s learning how to feed the heart that’s hard

He placed a hand on his hammering heart and another on his belly, as he’d been taught to do in the yoga classes he’d recently started attending, and focused on slowing down his heart rate.

“Are you okay? You’ve been, I don’t know, distant since you got here.”

Santiago was about to say something dismissive about being busy with the restaurant when he stopped himself. What was it Dominique had said? Nothing changes if nothing changes. He was tired of being the affable doormat. He looked up from his feet.