The Collected Regrets of Clover Quotes

“The secret to a beautiful death is living a beautiful life.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Grief, I'd come to realize was like dust, When you're in the thick of a dust storm, you're completely disoriented by the onslaught, struggling to see or breathe. But as the force recedes, and you slowly find your bearing and see a path forward, the dust begins to settle into the crevices. And it will never disappear completely- as the years pass, you'll find it in unexpected places at unexpected moments.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Instead of constantly asking ourselves the question of why we're here, maybe we should be savoring the simpler truth: We are here.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“It’s easy to glamorize the path you didn’t take.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Don’t let the best parts of life pass you by because you’re too scared of the unknown.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Be cautiously reckless.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“The truth is, grief neve really goes away. Someone told me once that it's like a bag that you always carry - it starts out as large as a suitcase, and as the years go by, it might reduce to the size of a purse, but you carry it forever. I know it probably sounds cliched, but it helped me realize that I didn't need to ever get over it completely.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Maybe we just need to appreciate that many aspects of life— and the people we love—will always be a mystery. Because without mystery, there is no magic.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“It frustrated me that society. was so determined to quantify grief, as if time could erase the potency of love.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“while a mother who miscarries might not have ever had the chance to hold that child, they had plenty. of time to love them, to dream and hope for them. And that means their grief is twofold - they're not just grieving the child, but the life they never got to experience. Who are we to tell anyone their pain isn't worthy?”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Who are we to tell anyone their pain isn't worthy?”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“... most of us are guilty of that with our loved ones. We get stuck in a routine and we look at them as we've always looked at them, without seeing them for the person they've become or the person they strive to be. What a terrible thing to do to someone you love.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Grief is just love looking for a place to settle.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“If you want something you don’t have,” he’d said, “you have to do something you’ve never done.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Intelligence will only get you so far in life... And the same can be said for wit and charm. But two things will serve you better than any others."...

"What are they?"

"Infinite curiosity and sense of observation.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“..."let's think about each of these matches as a human life."... "each of these matches should burn for exactly the same amount of time, right?"..."but sometimes, you strike a match and it goes out almost immediately. Other times, it stops burning halfway."
"And sometimes it breaks when you try to light it."
"Exactly!... So even though they're technically the same, each match is actually very unique. Sometimes it's not as strong structurally, for reasons we can't see just by looking at it. And there are outside factors that contribute - like how hard we strike it against the box, or the dampness in the air, or how much breeze there is when we try to light it. All those things can affect how long a match burns for."...
"But what's that got to do with dying?"...
"Well, my dear, just as we don't know how long a match will last until we light it, we never know how long a life will last until we live it. And often there are factors that we have no control over.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Your grief is yours to process in your own time, in whatever way works for you. No one can tell you how to do that.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“The secret to a beautiful death is to live a beautiful life. Putting your heart out there. Letting it get broken. Taking chances. Making mistakes.... Promise me, kid,...that you'll let yourself live.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Hugo— We are not meant to be in this lifetime . . . perhaps we will meet in another. I’ll keep you in my heart until then. —Claudia”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“What most people don’t consider is that death is often random and cruel. It doesn’t care if you’ve been kind all your life. Or if you’ve eaten healthily, exercised often, and always worn a seat belt or a helmet. It doesn’t care that a loved one left behind might spend the rest of their lives replaying events in their head, tormented by the words “if only.” People tell themselves they’ve got plenty of time, until they’re at the mercy of a careless action—a driver on their cellphone, a neighbor who left a candle burning. And by then, it’s too late.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“I didn’t need to live forever to know what loneliness felt like.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“I was still here, still living. But was I just existing out of habit?”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“When someone has always been there for you, it’s easy to assume they always will be. And then, one day, they’re not.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“It’s so easy to see your parental figure through that lens alone, to think that their existence has always revolved around yours. But before they were parents, they were simply human beings trying to navigate life as best they could, dealing with their own disappointments, chasing after their own dreams. And yet we often expect them to be infallible.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover: An uplifting story about living a full, beautiful life

“You were always someone’s wife, or mother, or daughter before you were yourself. It’s like I didn’t live my life for myself, as myself. Like I wasted what I was given.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Grief plays tricks on you that way—a familiar whiff of cologne or a potential sighting of your person in a crowd, and all the knots you’ve tied inside yourself to manage the pain of losing them suddenly unravel.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Observing the world, rather than engaging with it, meant I didn't have to invest emotionally. If I never got close to anyone, they couldn't leave me. Or it wouldn't hurt if they did. Better to be alone by choice - that was one thing I always had control over.

But now I realized I wasn't fooling anyone. The truth was, I wasn't trying my best - I was only living a shell of the life I knew was possible.

And I regretted it.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“gratitude doesn’t necessarily free us from sadness—or our fears.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“And instead of constantly asking ourselves the question of why we’re here, maybe we should be savoring a simpler truth: We are here.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

“Don't let the best parts of life pass you by because you are too scared of the unknown.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover