Martha N. Beck · 336 pages
Rating: (8.7K votes)
“Angels come in many shapes and sizes, and most of them are not invisible.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“Most people go through their whole lives," John went on, "and never have one miracle happen to them. You've had dozens and dozens, and you still want more! It's like God gives you a brownie, I mean a really good brownie, but you can't be content with it. You want the whole pan of brownies. Nobody gets that.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“The end goal of all of this striving is to live joyfully, and that there are often more direct ways of achieving this than conforming to rigid standards set by social custom.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“And thus I learned that at Harvard, while knowing a great deal is the norm and knowing everything is the goal, appearing to know everything is an acceptable substitute. I pondered this great truth during the two-hour seminar. I was so buoyed up by it that I didn't pay enough attention to snorkeling up little bits of food in order to keep my nausea under control. I sailed right on into my next class, another seminar, confident that I could get through it without losing my lunch.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“Occasionally, especially at celebratory times, the whole gang of us would launch into a spontaneous mental game. For example, my mother used to send me to the back porch (a room containing no furniture but a simply incredible mass of Stuff) to get flour for holiday cakes or pies. I often returned to the kitchen, cringing with disgust, to announce that the flour was full of worms. No matter how sick this made me, I knew it wuoldn't bother my mother. She always just sifted the worms out, saying that even if she missed a few and they got into the food, they would simply be an excellent source of protein. Just as we were all beginning to feel thoroughly downtrodden, my father would save the day. "Everyone come up with a literary reference about worms!" he would shout.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“It was the first time I had spoken to them directly. In doing so, I felt myself cross a fine but very distinct line, the line between speculating about the existence of a metaphysical plane of some sort and climbing aboard for the ride. I knew I had let go of my sanity. It was terrifying. I only did it because my fear of what was happening to my body had become greater than my fear of holding on to rational beliefs.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“Adam has angels like a dog has fleas. He came here with them, and the more time you spend around him, the more likely you are to get them yourself.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“I also thought about that seminar classmate on Adam's ninth birthday. Adam had insisted on going to a pizza-and-games arcade for his party. The only person he'd invited besides his sisters was someone I'll call Lonnie, whom Adam claimed to be his girlfriend. Although I had often heard Adam sing about Lonnie, I had never met her, or seen Adam interact with any girl. I was afraid that he would start humping her leg the second she came in range. These were fears I'd sustained since before he was born; I though all people with Down syndrome were grossly overaffectionate. I was grossly wrong.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
“This is it, I thought. This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.”
― Martha N. Beck, quote from Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
Martha N. Beck
Born place: in Provo, UT, The United States
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“But he was wrong. Because I had fought with my heart and defeated it long ago. I was certainly not going to become passionate about something that was impossible. I knew my limits; I knew how much suffering i could bear.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“Throwing a sub at the Apollyon probably wasn't something that should be done in public. But I couldn't help it; I laughed.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, quote from Deity
“...And as for your hair!it's worse than ever.Can't you drench it in water to take those untidy twists and twirls out of it?'
'It only makes it curl more and more whey it gets dry,' said Molly, sudden tears coming into her eyes as a recollection came before her like a picture seen long ago and forgotten for years-a young mother washing and dressing her little girl; placing the half-naked darling on her knee, and twining the wet rings of dark hair fondly round her fingers, and then, in ecstasy of fondness, kissing the little curly head.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, quote from Wives and Daughters
“It both surprised and angered me that {they} had reached a consensus of agreement against me. The way I looked at the world, enemies criticized and friends affirmed.”
― Pat Conroy, quote from The Lords of Discipline
“The arguments against insanity fall through with a soft shirring sound;
these are the sounds of dead voices on dead records
floating down the broken shaft of memory.
When I turn to you to ask if you remember,
When I turn to you in our bed”
― Stephen King, quote from Lisey's Story
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