Donna Lynn Hope

A relationship, of any kind, requires two. Some people want it all and expect it all, always looking outward, so often saying what they deserve, even more saying what they want, and all thinking another should provide it for them, but do they ever bother to be the person they think someone else would love to have? Perhaps, in order to get that better love, extend it first.

Strangers were a fairytale full of possibilities not yet corrupted by reality while caregivers were the reality _ and everything that couldn't be counted upon.

The only time she has anything resembling a life is when she sleeps because when she sleeps she can dream.

Regret is her companion and the one who whispers to her often. She has even let hope die and that brings about despair.

I smile when I want to cry. I laugh when I want to die.

The people you think are the happiest are usually the saddest; that's because they see more and feel deeper than others do. They are the sensitive and they see beyond the veil of what's tangible and what's not. They wear no masks and can see through the masks of others. The sensitive to life are few in number, which is why they feel so alone...because they are all alone.

It's hard to part the curtains when the dark holds such familiarity.

Powerful words that penetrate the psyche are not forgotten while silence is.

What have I to prove, and to whom, and why? I'm keen enough to want nothing more than to live a simple, humble, unfettered life.

We start our sometimes tedious, sometimes exciting, often times sad and stressful march to the grave the moment we're born, so it might as well be a march worth remembering.

I don't admire the person who hides from the world and claims enlightenment. To be purified you have to be tested and there is no better test of strength than dealing with other people.

Only strong women, and they seem to be rare, can handle a frank and direct woman who doesn't sweet-talk or need others to nerve her. You can identify the easily intimidated because they need a gaggle of like-minded clones to back them up when they feign offense, which is merely a guise for their insecurity.

In a fit of anger he had said to her, "You'll always be miserable," to which she thoughtfully replied, "Is that so? It's impossible to be miserable when you've known tragedy and hardship. Both strengthen and refine a person to the point where they may have moments of grief and sadness, but misery is known only to those who have a sense of entitlement...you know, people like you.

Her scar tissue, which she seems to amass both physically and mentally, may not be pretty, but they have become tougher than if she had never been wounded at all.

For those who have learned what suffering is early on, you have prepared ahead of the pack so that you can take care of the pack.

He studied the woman before him, not as lovely as she once was, ordinary in appearance, scarred by living, abandoned by many, breathtakingly to be near and altogether unforgettable. "I have no friends," she spoke forth hauntingly. "I am alone." He couldn't believe it. But then he could for the rare creature near enough to touch was out of their league. She wasn't envied for the shallowness of appearance or the superficiality of status or possessions; she was envied for being uncommon and for possessing indomitable strength, something only a lifetime of suffering could shape.

One woman's definition of success may not be another's. Is success, as the world defines it, an accomplishment in a society this sick?

Society nowadays tells people that their happiness is all that matters but happiness is never found if it costs someone else__ theirs. That is not what happiness is, nor would such a person deserve it, because happiness is forged by the setting aside of self and in doing for others to make them happy first and foremost, so if you have to hurt another human being to __ind your happiness,_ then you have no clue what the word actually means or what it__ willing to do, and in being so self-centered and entitled, it__ veritably tragic that the only care and concern you have is for yourself.