Notes on an Execution

You have lived your years in careful imitation, mimicking the things someone else would say, think, feel, and now you are tired.

You don’t need to have it all. You only need to figure out how much is enough.

Lavender knew, then, that the world was a forgiving place. That every horror she had lived or caused could be balanced with such gutting kindness. It would be a tragedy, she thought—inhumane—if we were defined only by the things we left behind.