“At 13, I began to let boys put their hands on my sacred spaces, but my permission still didn’t gain their respect. I was just a goal conquered as he walked past the football team. I saw the smirks and yet I continued to endure the degrading behavior. Sex is so much more sacred than mankind has treated it.”
“Before I met Luke, after my second failed long-term relationship, I was at rock bottom. ‘Kel…your picker is broken,’ my therapist told me. It stuck with me, ringing in my head. I never would’ve found him if I hadn’t first found myself.”
“But I promise you, I will pick myself up from those inevitable tough moments and I will try harder next time. I will learn from my mistakes and I will teach you the same. I hope my love for you is enough.”
“I know you think that if you take a few of these balls I’m juggling, I will be okay. But I won’t. It’s much deeper than that. Be the safe place I need to fall apart.”
“My mother-in-law asked me if I liked my doctor. ‘Well, I did before he stuck his finger in my butthole!’ I make jokes. Sometimes, really inappropriate ones. There is no right way or wrong way to deal with a situation like this. I was at a hospital that had already saved my life once.”
“I was cutting my son’s hair on a Friday afternoon when I noticed his head looked a bit different. His forehead popped out quite a bit and the top of his head was higher than the back. Months later, we noticed our puppy was becoming more and more sleepy. He was having a hard time standing on his legs and would get winded very fast. ‘The odds of them both having this are astronomical.’ The news hit me like a brick. Thanos and Branson were meant for each other.”
“‘Is that a yes? We can meet at Walmart. Thanks so much.’ Meet at Walmart? With a 4lb preemie? In the middle of cold and flu season? I kept my children in isolation for 6 weeks and here was a newborn heading to his first outing in the middle of winter. It was all too much to take in. I had no idea what our future with him might hold, but I did know this: no baby deserves to be alone.”
“‘I’m sorry, but he will definitely have mental issues and live in a home.’ The doctor told me to go home. The second I made it to the car, I lost it. I was crying uncontrollably. I called my husband, but I couldn’t get anything out. ‘Ashley, I need you to PULL OVER. I’m coming to get you.’ I couldn’t, I was so distraught. I just wanted to get home where no one could see me.”
“You cannot deny a child an education based upon his nationality.”
“I watched in horror as the Leviathan of our legal and healthcare system grabbed this couple and sucked them into the abyss, pulling them out of my hands. I fought with everything I had to secure this couple a happy ending. As one patient said to me, ‘Getting old is not for the weak or poor.”
