Here Is How You'll Know It's Time To Leave

Cristina Gottardi

Here Is How You'll Know It's Time To Leave

Because some part of you always knows.

Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change, of actually becoming larger, spiritually, than we were before. Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening. Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize that we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of the personality is about to be revealed.

— Alice Walker, Living By The Word

Change Growth Personality Growing Up Self-improvement Periods Of Growth Pain Moving On

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It is impossible for you to go on as you were before, so you must go on as you never have.

— Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Moving On strength Starting Over Trauma Grief

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There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit.’ It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving up, rather than out.

— Ellen Goodman, Ellen Goodman's last column: looking backward, looking forward

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I read the last paragraph of my favorite book. I remind myself that some things I love end. And that’s okay.

— Ari Eastman, Things I Do When I Start Thinking About You

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There's one thing I want to say so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm not sorry, there's nothing to say.

— Stars, Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Girl Who Cares Too Much Love Relationships Moving On

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You wrote down all these things to say goodbye to, but so many of them are good things. Why not just say goodbye to the bad things? Say goodbye to all the times you felt lost, to all the times it was a ‘no’ instead of a ‘yes,’ to all the scrapes as and bruises, to all the heartache. Say goodbye to everything you really want to do for the last time, but don’t go have the last Scotch with Barney — have the first Scotch toasting Barney’s new life because that’s a good thing, and the good things will always be here waiting for you.

— Lily Aldrin, How I Met Your Mother

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Your soul has fallen to bits and pieces. Good. Rearrange them to suit yourself.

— Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

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You often do not know what's best for your life. Predicting your future does not make it more guaranteed to happy. It just closes you off. It gets you attached to an idea that you only want to be reality because you're attached to it.

— Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

The future Happiness Predicting The Future Change Being Open Life Moving On

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The little voice that's telling you the story of your life, has to let go of the old chapters to genuinely write new ones.

— Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

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There are moments which mark your life. Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this, and after this. Sometimes you can feel such a moment coming. That’s the test, or so I tell myself. I tell myself that at times like that, strong people keep moving forward anyway, no matter what they’re going to find.

— John Hobbes, Fallen

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Sadness does not last forever when we walk in the direction of that which we always desired.

— Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain

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There comes a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go.

— Tennessee Williams, Camino Real

Change Leaving Moving On Moving Forward Timing

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'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, very gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'

— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Wisehouse Classics

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It ends or it doesn't.
That’s what you say. That’s
how you get through it.
The tunnel, the night,
the pain, the love.
It ends or it doesn't.
If the sun never comes up,
you find a way to live
without it.
If they don’t come back,
you sleep in the middle of the bed,
learn how to make enough coffee
for yourself alone.

— Caitlyn Siehl, It Ends Or It Doesn't

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It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.

— John Green, Paper Towns

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Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.

— Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin: A Novel

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We begin where we end,
it has always been this way.

— Tyler Knott Gregson, Tyler Knott Gregson

Love Beginnings Endings Breaking Up Getting Back Together

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Do you know there's a halfway world between each ending and each new beginning? It's called the hurting time, Jean Perdu. It's a bog; it's where your dreams and worries and forgotten plans gather. Your steps are heavier during that time. Don't underestimate that transition, Jeanno, between farewell and new departure. Give yourself the time you need. Some thresholds are too wide to be taken in one stride.

— Nine George, The Little Paris Bookshop

Starting Over Patience Goodbyes Hellos Endings New Beginnings

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He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.

— Emily Giffin, Love the One You're With

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This is how bad stories end. But it's also how the best stories begin.

— Iain Thomas, I Wrote This For You

Endings Beginnings Pain Starting Over Letting Go Moving On Moving Forward

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