another olive

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Olive Kitteridge is perhaps one of my very favorite books of all time. It's a collection of interconnected short stories about everyday life in a small town. The stories are somehow discouraging and hopeful at the same time. Such is life. 

I heard HBO is making it into a miniseries. I'll be so disappointed if it's not great. Regardless, here are some beautiful lines from the book:

The year that followed - was it the happiest year of his own life? He often thought so, even knowing such a thing was foolish to claim about any year of one's life, but in his memory, that particular year held the sweetness of time that contained no thoughts of beginning and no thoughts of end …" 

~The Pharmacy

Hope was a cancer inside him. He didn't want it; he did not want it. He could not bear those shoots of tender green hope springing up within him any longer.

~ Incoming Tide

 … and she understood that this form of comfort was true for many people … but it was thin milk …

~ The Piano Player

She knows that loneliness can kill people - in different ways it can actually make you die.

~ A Little Burst

Only the young, he thought, could withstand the rigors of love.

~ Starving 

No, they would never get over that night because they had said things that altered how they saw each other.

~ A Different Road

Because what did they have now, except for each other, and what could you do if it was not even quite that?

~ Winter Concert

There were days - she could remember this - when Henry would hold her hand as they walked home, middle-aged people, in their prime. Had they known these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not.

~ Tulips

Her eyes were closed, and throughout her tired self swept waves of gratitude - and regret. … It baffled her, the world. She did not want to leave it yet.

~ River

Some of these sentiments remind me of a song by Shovels & Rope called After the Storm (on their new album due out the end of this month). 

But won't you help me to get through it, 

I've been flailing like a child,

My mistakes they are so many,

For my (loving, ruthless) weary heart is wild.

Here's to all the weary hearts making it through day by day. You can do it.

olive juice, okay?

emily