While she cut the mushrooms, she cried more than she had at the grave, the most so far, because she found the saddest thing of all to be the simple truth of her capacity to move on.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the bittersweet nature of moving forward after loss, highlighting emotional resilience.
In this quote, Aimee Bender articulates the deep emotional struggle associated with the process of moving on from grief. While cutting mushrooms, the act becomes a poignant reminder of her ability to continue living despite the sorrow she feels, illustrating that recognizing one's capacity for resilience can be both painful and liberating—a reflection on the complexity of human emotions in the face of change and healing.
In practice
In a therapy session discussing grief and healing, you might say, 'As Aimee Bender reflects, moving on can stir profound emotions.'
I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son; she is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough to make the baby sleep. My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside. Amen.
Sometimes, she said, mostly to herself, I feel I do not know my children... It was a fleeting statement, one I didn't think she'd hold on to; after all, she had birthed us alone, diapered and fed us, helped us with homework, kissed and hugged us, poured her love into us. That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.
I do think that people will claim a certain fatigue about talking about race. But I think that even though they do, it's still necessary - completely necessary.
[A]ll change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about.
In this time of globalization, with all its advantages, the poor are the most vulnerable to having their traditions, relationships and knowledge and skills ignored and denigrated, and experiencing development with a great sense of trauma, loss and social disconnectedness.
We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society.
Human beings do metamorphose. They change their identity constantly. However, each new identity thrives on the delusion that it was always in possession of the body it has just conquered.
I think the fossil fuel industry is genuinely freaked out by the combination of the price collapse, the divestment movement, and that fact that renewable energy is getting so cheap so fast.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.