" When People Ask How I’m Doing I want to say, my depression is an angry deity, a jealous god a thirsty shadow that wrings my joy like a dishrag and makes juice out of my smile. I want to say, getting out of bed has become a magic trick. I am probably the worst magician I know. I want to say, this sadness is the only clean shirt I have left and my washing machine has been broken for months, but I’d rather not ruin someone’s day with my tragic honesty so instead I treat my face like a pumpkin. I pretend that it’s Halloween. I carve it into something acceptable. I laugh and I say, "I’m doing alright."

"I’ve got a hamper full of really loud mistakes and a graveyard in my closet. I’m afraid if I let you see my skeletons, you’ll grind the bones into powder and get high on my fault lines."

"I held you the way a boat holds water. I should have left when I felt us sinking."

"I hope I haven’t already driven past my greatest moments. I hope there is something beautiful on the horizon that’s just as impatient as I am. Something so eager, it wants to meet me halfway. A moment that is diligently staring at its watch, trembling with nervousness, frustrated, and bursting at the seams, wondering what’s taking me so long to arrive."

"Tell me a story and let’s laugh like it’s the only thing keeping us alive. Play a song and give the stereo permission to use its outside voice. Let’s sing loudly, offbeat and out of tune. Let the world know we don’t care how it sounds because the only key we need is already in the ignition. Let the sky turn the windshield into a stage. Watch it dance like the scenery is auditioning to be a part of our story. Let’s just go. Drive until our troubles phantom in the rearview mirror and we forget they exist, at least for a moment."

"Gather your mistakes, rinse them with honesty and self-reflection, let dry until you can see every choice and the regret becomes brittle, cover the entire surface in forgiveness, remind yourself that you are human and this too is a gift."

" Why Did You Leave? Because you wouldn’t let me love both of us at the same time."

"If you let me be your sunlight, I promise I will penetrate your darkness until you speak in angel wings. Pull me close to you, tell me that you love me, and then scratch your future into my back so I can be everything you live for. I promise I will love you as if it’s the only thing I’ve ever done correctly."

"I’m not much of a love poet. But if I was to wake up tomorrow morning and decide that I really wanted to write about love, my first poem would be about you. About how I loved you the same way that I learned how to ride a bike. Scared, but reckless. With no training wheels or elbow pads so my scars can tell the story of how I fell for you."

"There is nothing rational about love. Love stutters when it gets nervous, love trips over its own shoelaces. Love is clumsy, and my heart refuses to wear a helmet."

"Relationships remind me that I’m not afraid of heights or falling, but I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when my body hits the ground."