23 Quotes by Susie Newman

The good mom of a bad child is like a musician without an instrument. My Mimi was like a pianist, up nights, mindlessly tapping her fingers on an invisible keyboard, desperately trying to save a lost melody.

This business about chasing ghosts away makes no sense at all, especially when ghosts are much more polite than the living. Spirits tend to be subtle, they take up little space for the most part they leave you alone. Humans on the other hand are self-centered beings who have somehow formed the notion that they are the only ones with the right to be here.

The only bad thing about living a long life is all the people you lose along that journey.

Buttons are ordinary and homely, but they're also purposeful, and they hold things together. The collection of buttons reminded me of days, some shiny, most plain or dull, and several ugly as hell. When Ava placed the buttons in a random pattern, sides touching, they looked meaningful. At least they appeared intentional and each button significant.

Ya know, Savannah Jo, Buddha said that anger is a hot coal, and by holding it to throw at someone, you end up burning yourself. Baby, you can’t take your mama’s leaving as personal. Nothing others do is because of you. People have their own reality and perceptions. And sometimes things need to be broken so they can be fixed.

We all have an ember of madness that lives inside us. Given sufficient oxygen, it becomes a torch. Carrying a torch is dangerous, but it can save you in your darkest hour. My life has taught me that people break, become unhinged, fall completely apart, and then recover. After all, without mud, there would be no lotus flower.

It’s small wonders that call a lost person home.

I knew at that moment that I had learned one of my biggest life lessons, that good people sometimes snap. And a broken person can be fixed.

It doesn’t take any effort for an ordinary person to be happy during happy times, but it takes an extraordinary person to stand in front of critics, spin kindness from regret and tears, and turn wasted days into magical moments.