Beard With Me by Penny Reid (Notes)

One of the most important was that the magnitude of disappointment was directly proportional to the magnitude of expectations. I’d known this for a while, but the concept had finally solidified in my mind this year during physics class when we’d learned about Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It applied to life and hopes and dreams and expectations too.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As previously noted, this law applies to life, hopes, dreams, expectations, and masses traveling at varying velocities, especially when one of those masses is a huge boy and the other mass is me.

I had a kind of fearless confidence when I was a kid, like I really mattered. All that changed in middle school; not because of any one big event or wound; more like thousands of tiny cuts (literally and figuratively). I’d grown tired of fighting the world because the world always won.

When you manage people, figure out what your employees need from you in order for them to be their most successful selves. Some folks need praise, some folks need criticism, some folks need structure. Some folks just need small talk, knowing you care, and that’s it. It’ll be different for each person.

Basically, when you’re a leader, it’s impossible to treat everyone the same. Each person needed something different from you—as their leader—in order to succeed. Being in charge meant figuring out what that thing was for each individual, and then giving it to them.

The only thing I could do was point out how what he was doing, what he wanted to do and the choices he made, how all that impacted others. So that’s what I did.

I patted its head. "Why does your dog always look at me like it's afraid?" "It's ’cause you're the alpha and she wants your approval. Come here, girl. Come here." With one more wary glance, the dog moved past me and to Cletus, meeting him with exuberance markedly different from the reserved, half-hearted greeting I'd received. "Alpha," I snorted, shaking my head. "Pack mentality is key to canine survival. You're the alpha, so she doesn't want to do anything to piss you off. It's a sign of respect."

“The things we regret and the things we yearn for. That's what makes us who we are.”

WILL FERGUSON, HAPPINESS

“You don’t need to brag.” Her smile widened and she looked at me like I was funny. Again, she turned, leading the way back to the camp and not waiting for me to follow. “That’s the difference between you and Darrell. He brags ’cause he ain’t so certain. His superiority is questionable, even to him.”

“Certainly no one has ever died of an unrequited passion—it's usually the ones that are requited that get people in trouble.”

MERCEDES LACKEY, FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

Sure, people might pity kids like Carla and me, but they didn’t ever actually care about us. Pity was not compassion. I understood that, I got it. Clearly, she did not. We were unfortunate charity projects, worthy of what other folks were willing to give, which was usually just a sympathetic glance and a Whatcha gunna do? And that’s it.

 

While Carla and me? Well, let’s just say, this is why you don’t pet strays. You don’t teach them to expect gentleness. 

 

And then everything was in the hands of gravity, which has never had much love for the terminally stupid.”<BR>Mira Grant, Feed: The Newsflesh Trilogy

 

When people are overwhelmed, they can’t see past their own campfire. I’m asking you to look past your campfire, Billy.”

 

My sweet boy, you need to have faith. The Lord would not have put her in our path if He didn’t want us to help. I believe that. We are being called. And when you’re called, you answer, even if it’s inconvenient, even when it’s scary. Actually, especially then.”

 

“A Fairy Haiku just for you:<BR>Thank you for the food.<BR>No need to guard it, Billy<BR>Don’t snobs sleep indoors?<BR>- Forest Fairy”

The real meaning of the story is about who is fit to rule, who is fit to lead. Saul is nearly as tall as Goliath. His armor is equal, he has all the right weapons and tools and yet he refused to fight the giant.”

 

Saul has no faith in his own success, in his people, in God. And then David comes, a boy who resolves to fight the giant, though he has no armor and no spear. By comparison, he has none of the right tools, taking only a staff, sling, and five stones from a brook. But he also takes faith. All the right tools in the world can’t measure up to the power of faith.”

 

If you don't receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.”<BR>Robert Goolrick, The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life

I mentally devoured this picture of him, feeling greedy for it. It was like looking at a painting or a sculpture, an intensely gorgeous piece of art. Have you ever known someone like that? Who takes your breath away when they smile? Gawd.

 

Darrell was a master charmer, which was how he got his club name, Romeo. The man’s charisma felt like a tractor beam.

 

“It's delicious to have people adore you, but it's exhausting, too. Particularly when your own feelings don't match theirs.”<BR>Tasha Alexander, A Fatal Waltz

 

She tries to wear her pain on the inside. She always has. It’s the trademark of the oldest sibling, I think.”<BR>Laura Miller, My Butterfly

 

Nine Inch Nails song entitled, ”Hurt”

So I knew teenage girls were prone to odd fits of emotion, crying and the like. Just like me and my brothers were prone to spells of aggression.

She tries to wear her pain on the inside. She always has. It’s the trademark of the oldest sibling, I think.”<BR>Laura Miller, My Butterfly

What does Scarlet need from me, right now, in order to accept my help? What can I say that will get her in that shower, in those pajamas, and sleeping the night in a warm bed?

“I have no brothers or sisters, so I get all my siblings’ love. But since I can't take what's already mine, I end up giving it all to my cat.”<BR>Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

I didn’t understand how his situation could be considered overwhelming. He had everything and he was overwhelmed? Could people be overwhelmed by blessings s

People are their choices, yes, but they’re also how they treat others

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake.”<BR>Ernest Hemingway

<BR>“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”<BR>Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

People are rarely as attractive in reality as they are in the eyes of the people who are in love with them. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.”<BR>David Levithan, Every Da

Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones

Don’t go looking for your lost homework inside a blueberry pie, pies don’t eat homework. Meaning, don’t look for excuses where none exist and don’t avoid taking responsibility for yourself.

She deserved so much better than the hand she’d been dealt. Maybe her struggles had made her strong, resilient, but she didn’t deserve to be burdened with them

Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths.”<BR>Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

The Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album

“Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.”<BR>H.G. Wells, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman

As my momma’s friend Ellie Leffersbee said whenever she saw or heard or experienced something she found momentous, I was stirred like a gin and tonic and shaken like a martini.

Momentous, incredible, and unheard.

God gave us free will so that we’ll stumble and learn how to pick ourselves back up. But He also gave us folks who love us, to clear away the obstacles before we trip and fall.

Poetry plus all the wordless feelings in the music itself. Complex things, ideas are communicated without words. The instrumental part can make the spoken part ironic—like when the lyrics touch on love, but the accompaniment is loud and angry. I love that. But the score can also make the lyrics more true and sincere, the feelings deeper.”

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.’”<BR>Her eyes cut to mine, like I’d surprised her, held. “I like that,” she whispered breathlessly, like she was telling me a secret. “Who said that?”<BR>“Marcus Aurelius.”

You know, Scarlet,” I continued, “It’s okay to have dreams, to want things.”<BR>She took what looked like a deep breath, her smile waning. “I know that, Billy. But it’s also dangerous too.”<BR>Dangerous? “How so?”<BR>“Have you ever wanted something you know you can’t have?”

“Then you know dreaming can be dangerous. Wanting something impossible can make a person bitter, angry, resentful. It can make you hate the thing you want, and I don’t ever want to be a hateful person.<BR>“So you, what? Don’t allow yourself to want things? That doesn’t seem right.”<BR>Her eyes narrowed and she turned her head, peering at me but still smiling. “Sometimes it’s not about right and wrong, Billy. Life ain’t fair, didn’t you just get finished ranting about the unfairness of Ben McClure’s sainted status in Green Valley?”<BR>Likewise, I narrowed my eyes. “Unfairness doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders and accept whatever life gives us. It means we fight for what we want, and we take it when we can.”<BR>“I am fighting for my dreams,” she said, her smile spreading, looking mischievous. “I have every intention of living in a real house one day, with a kitchen.”<BR>Now I was smiling even though her statements, meant to be funny, frustrated me. “Dream bigger, Scarlet. You’re not just capable of bigger, you deserve it. Here’s another quote for you, ‘Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.’”

“… people want to be circled by safety, not by the unexpected. The unexpected can take you out. But the unexpected can also take you over and change your life. Put a heart in your body where a stone used to be.”<BR>Ron Hall, Denver Moore

Yes. I was well and truly crushed as I could only watch Billy Winston laugh, desperately basking in the image of him so delighted and relaxed. I had the odd sense that his laughter also filled the empty spaces inside of me, the neglected, vacant rooms, and even a few places that felt brand-new, like he’d created them.<BR>All that noble honesty he carried around like a boulder abruptly lifted, revealing him. Just him. Carefree and young and happy. Someone he might’ve been if his burdens hadn’t been so heavy, his responsibilities so broad.

Kisses open doors, I've noticed. That one gesture can unlock secrets, ease open feelings. It can't be prevented—these kisses just are. It's how they work. They break into basements you never knew you had.”<BR>Susan Fletcher, Eve Green

It was like, I wanted it to be right, so I willed it to be right, and that was that. Maybe this wasn’t how right and wrong worked for most folks, but I’d learned through hard experience a long time ago that sometimes right—especially when the goal was survival—was relative to needs and circumstances rather than an absolute.

“It is not true that women cannot keep secrets. Where they love, they can be trusted to death and beyond, against all sense and reason. It is their weakness, and their great strength.”<BR>Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,<BR>in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”<BR>Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.

Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.

Rules remove temptation—uh, mostly—and set limits. You sleeping somewhere warm, indoors, that’s what’s important. I want you to feel safe with me, always.”

“Family cannot be determined by blood. Family is determined by actions. Family is about trust. Family is about acceptance. Family is about love. True family is earned, not born.”<BR>Sarah Brianne, Vincent

“I wonder if things can happen too early or too late or if everything happens at exactly the right time. If so, how sad and beautiful.”<BR>Simon Van Booy, The Secret Lives of People in Love

 “Just surrender, Billy. You can’t control everything. Sometimes you have to surrender.”

Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.”<BR>Donna Tartt, The Secret History

But how does one pretend the world doesn’t exist?

This is why you don’t pet strays. You don’t teach them to expect gentleness. Getting their hopes up just ends up being an unkindness instead, in the end.

How many young men fear that there is a monster inside them? People are supposed to fear others, not themselves. People are supposed to aspire to become their fathers, not shudder at the thought.”<BR>Veronica Roth, Allegiant

“’Hide them all, then. Keep her – them – safe. Please.'<BR>‘And what will you give me in return, Severus?'<BR>‘In – in return? Anything.’”<BR>J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hmm.” I knew what that was like. “It’s an inconvenient truth not frequently acknowledged, Duane. Boys, men, don’t generally like feeling out of control. They don’t embrace it the same way girls and women do—generally. That’s why you’re saying the mean things. She makes you feel crazy, uncertain, and it’s scary.”

“For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me — as a girl and later as a woman — to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life.”<BR>Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan