# Recovery

I believe I’ve always been a sensitive, generous, and caring person—but too wound up in my own troubles to express that or to really be there for others

The most damaging lie I told myself was that people couldn’t love me for who I was, that it was necessary to divine what they wanted and play that part, instead of just being myself.

I am inherently beautiful and worthy, exactly as I am.

The only way I knew to accommodate the duality in me was to drink.

But when you believe in this perfect world — not in God, necessarily, but in the crushing beauty of every tiny leaf, every little shimmer of sunshine on water, every faint breeze drifting through the air — you connect with your capacity for love, with your uncanny ability to form new connections and discover new ideas, with your unbelievable... See more

Long-distance relationships were, for me, a perfect balance of commitment and freedom. I loved the emotional roller coaster that comes from longing, reconciling and parting, over and over again. I’ve been through three of them, and in each case I was ambivalent about actually moving to the new town. They allowed me to put my best self forward,... See more

It is so easy to look for answers outside of ourselves when the real work at hand is an inside job. God lives in and all around us, we are never not connected to spirit, even in our darkest moments.

“Dear Frau V.,

Your questions are unanswerable because you want to know how one ought to live. One lives as one can. There is no single, definite way for the individual which is prescribed for him or would be the proper one. If that’s what you want you had best join the Catholic Church, where they tell you what’s what. Moreover this way fits in with... See more

It feels like there are so many contradictory rules: we have to ask questions but also talk about ourselves. We have to be cool but not detached. We have to be smart and informed but not a pretentious know-it-all.