Last week was another grey, wet week in Stellenbosch. The kind that makes everything feel a little slower. Traffic, reading, internet speeds, the will to do laundry.
It reminded me of a line from The Bell Jar. Just a quiet moment, when Esther says: “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
In my own secondhand copy, that line was underlined. Not by me. Someone who came before me clearly needed it. It stopped me.
So I went quote hunting.
Not the Monday motivation kind. The good stuff. The underlined, folded, scribbled-in-the-margin kind. The stuff you save in your Notes app and forget where it came from. The kind that doesn’t try to inspire you. It just tells the truth.
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
“You must understand, I am not like other people. I suffer terribly from life.”
“Wat ’n mens nie sê nie, bestaan ook.”
“We are all just walking each other home.”
“Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently.”
You’ve probably got some of these too. A line that landed when you least expected it... mid-laundry, in traffic, halfway through your lunch.
Here’s to finding more of those.
I hope your mug stays warm this week, your socks dry, that you have a good book if the rain keeps falling, and that you find the right line at just the right time.
PS: Not all underlined quotes are deep. Sometimes someone just really likes the word 'umbrella'.