The Pumpkin Eater

“Now these things have been taken from me, but not naturally. I don't know, and now I never will, but I imagine that the natural way is gradual, that you're given time, that you're old enough to accept it, even with relief. What happened to me was sudden and artificial and it was done by people–oh, and by me, of course; I did quite surely to myself what I would never have done to anyone else. But that cruel truth people tell when they're meant to be comforting someone...‘You have only yourself to blame!' It's far worse of course than being able to blame someone else. ‘Only yourself' is terrible...What are the good of such judgements, once something has been done?”

Now, I may not know what I want, or how I want it. I may not love myself enough to save myself. But that burden is mine to carry, and no one else's. The burden (which may not be a burden at all) of me is for me only. Mine. It is not the job of others to take care of me. Do not take that away from me. Do no take me away from myself. A story of a woman falling away, and in turn, apart. I don't know what else to say. Wow, such a profound book. I will be thinking about this for the next few days.