Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton

p. 24 In fact, he mirrored back so exactly what I wanted, what I needed , that it made me wonder if I knew him at all, or if I saw was what he wanted me to see.

He was too perfect. Too perfect what I needed hime to be. that had to be and act right? Nobody was perfectly what you needed them to be, everybody disappointed you in some way, right?"

I think this is how we truly look at relationships because starting young we get disappointed by our parents. It is very sad that we don't understand ourselves like we should.

p46-47

(Jason speaking)He sighed, "You shut it down on the dance floor. That's not control, not really. It's like you have a gun, and you can lock it in the gun safe, but that doesn't teach you how to shoot it."

(Anita Blake speaking)"I do not **** the people I take care of. It would be like taking advantage of your position."

(Jason speaking) "Anita, what I'm trying to say is that Nathaniel doesn't feel used. He feels useful. He doesn't need a girlfriend, because he thinks he already has one. He doesn't want to date, because he's already living with someone. He doesn't need to look for a place of his own, because he already has one. Micah knows that, Nathaniel knows that, the only person who doesn't know that seems to be be you."

first line I quoted- I just like the line sorry. No words of wisdom here. It can apply so much in our lifes about so many different things.

Second line area I quoted-I have say, I think that all of us to a degree feel this way about others. We do not want to take advantage of them but to a degree we do take advantage or better stated we do not full appreciate those near and dear to us until its too late.

Third line area I quoted-How many of us are blind to the truths that literary sit in front of our faces on a daily basis. Uh? come on...think truly think about this for awhile.

p48
In fact, it seemed easy to make a lot of sense, but inside, it felt hard. Inside it felt like the hardest thing in the world. To just let go, and not pick everything to d eath. To just let go and enjoy whaty ou had. To just let go and not make everybody around you miserable with your own internal dialogue. To just let go and be happy. So Simple. So difficult. So Teffifying.

Wow! Can I say, that this in itself so be the most quoted passage that we as a people need to learn about relationships to a degree. Its better to let it go than pick a fight. How many can't or won't let go of something.

p.61
"That's not my message to you, you know I never mind you asking my advice. I actually kind of like it. Who else have you been asking advice from?"

I opened my mouth, and closed it. "I prayed"

"What I'm getting is that you usually only pray when you're out of other options that you like. It might be nice if you prayed as something other than a lasts resort." She said it so matter-of-factly. Nothing big, you prayed. God can't talk to you, so her left a messag on your machine. Great.

I licked my suddenly dry lips, andsaid, "It doesn't bother you that you just took a message from God for me?"

"Well, it wasn't from him directly. He just sent it."

Okay totally get this passage. Hello, how many of us only pray when we want something or need something for ourselves when we are totally sick of the options in front of us. Though those options are the only true options. Seriously, what if we stopped and truly looked at what we needed to do. Could we say, we had the ability to accept it, do it, and deal with consquences when they came.

p134
"Panic that freezes your body numbs your mind, makes you forget everything that you've learned about how to make your body a weapon, and all that is left is a small screaming voice inside your head that mkaes you a victim. If you can't think and can't move, then your are victim. That is why panic will get you killed."

I refuse to be a victim of anything any more. Serioulsy. Not to my allergies, not to frustration, not to stress, not to being treated like idiot that can't remember what is happening on what day. Seriously, I am not a victim. It freaks people out the way I stay calm through situations. Though, why panic. There is no need.

p135
"..it was the emotional scars torn open and spilled my heart out into my skin. You fight so hard, so long, to cut someone out of your heart, but isn'ts not always yoru heart taht betrays you."

p137
"What is love? Sometimes it's just letting yourself be wh0 and what you are, and letting the person you're suppose to love be who and what he is, too. Or maybe, what and who they are."

Every person who is in a healthy relationship or even a non-healthy relationship, stop read this pharse. This doesn't mean you get to belittle, put down, or make your partner feel less than you. They are your equal. You want them to be accepting of you then you be accepting of them.

P171
"Sex doesn't make you a couple, Richard, love makes you a couple."

All the southern belle or bellos don't even go off the deep end saying, I'm in endorsing sex before marriage. I'm not. I'm simply letting everyone know that it takes more than sex to make a relationship work. Seriously, its just the rewards of the other steps you take to make it as a couple. So, for any teens reading this, wait on having sex. It's worth the wait.

p175
"Just angry. You get angry whenever you get uncomfortable, and what happened in the kitchen is going to hit a lot of buttons for you."

Okay, everyone that doesn't understand or totally get their partner, don't get angry because you can't physical and mentally figure out what they meant or are doing. Let it go..

p304
Sometimes the partso fo my life that are weirdest to me aren't the part dealing with vampires and werewolves and zombies. Even vampires politics didn't confuse me as much as my own love life.

p309
"Give a truly good person power, and they're still a good person. Give truly bad person power, and their still a bad person. The question is always about the person in between. Thaeon tht isn't evil, or good, but just ordinary. You don't always know what an ordinary person is like on the inside."

In light of recent events of our time, this is a very bold statement of our society as a whole.

p311

"I broke some personal rules tonight, that's all."
"Rules that you thought you would never be broken," Requiem said softly.
I looked at him surprised. "You say that like you know."
"A person likes to think of himse ina certain way, whe nwhen something happens that make that no longer possible, you mourn the old self. The person you thought you were."

Put the brakes on everyone that is in the middle of self-hate and self destruct mode. Why are you in that mode? OH! You broke a few personal rules. Mourn it, get it over it, and move on. This coming from someone who broke a few of her own personal rules.

p318
Demon? If she though Requiem was a demon, she'd never sone one for real. I had, and i know the difference.

I hear this saying in the Bible, I hear it in songs as " personal demons" etc. I have seen my fair share of demons whither it is of a family secret demons of other people's inability to accept who they are ...so I can honestly most people wouldn't know it if it walked up and shoke their hands politely. Basically, what it is saying before casting judgment check out your own sins.

p425
He turned at the bathroom door, and aid, "****, Anita, you are the better man in any relationship. Just because you don't have the right equipment , doesn't change what you are."

Okay, I am inturpting this as it doesn't matter who's on top in the relationship. The better person is the one that thinks of others before themselves and doesn't give a crap what others think about the relationship. Meaning, that if my DH could stay at home with the kids and be sahd of the house he would be. He would gladly let me bring in the income if I could make more than he.

p436
Let go. It sounded so simple. But letting go of anythign was so not my best thing. I wasn't even sure I knew how to do it. How do you let go? How do you openjd your hand and let yourself fall, and trust that other people will catch you? That they'll catch you and not let you hurt them, or yourself. Did I trust Nathaniel and Jason that much? Sort of.

Did I trust anyone that much? Maybe. Okay, not really. I took a deep breath, let it out slow, and I let go. I let go. I lget and trusted. Trusted, even as a small voice inside me whispered, stupid, stupid, stupid.

Okay a reoccuring theme this week in quotes and real for me. The two words, "let go". Hmm, how many people have the same trouble. If that was a knock on the door from heaven, to let us know to let go and let God.

p520
"I'm what you call an addictive personality. Do you know what that means officer?"

"It means if you can't drink, you've got to be addicted to something." I said.

He smiled , and really looked at me for me the first. Not just like I was a cop come to hassle him, but like I was a person.

"Yeah, yeah, my counselor wouldn't like that definition, no siree she would not. But, yeah, that's the truth. Some people are lucky, and kits just they're addicted to drinking, or smoking, or whatever, but for those ofuse are just addicted tobeing addicted, anything'll do.

Okay, this is a really important section for those who have an family member(s) or spouse with this. They have to be addicted to something. Even if they stop the bad stuff they turn to food, sugary drinks, or other things they need to replace the other addiction. I know..I watch a family member(s) struggle with this all the time.