'There will be many an event in your life that no amount of time will ever take the sting out of it. Days when you know your heart has been brutally ripped out and thoroughly stomped. But every one of those events is a defining moment in our lives that, for better or worse, changes us forever and carves a scar on our souls. They will leave us angry, bitter, shell-shocked and bleeding – that is a guarantee from a cold, brutal universe that hates us.’
Nick really didn’t want to hear this. But there was no stopping Caleb when he was on a roll.
‘We don’t have a choice in how or when our bad days will blindside us. But what we do chose is how we allow them to leave us once they’re gone. You can use those moments as a catalyst to spur you on to greater things or you can let it be the event that breaks you and leaves you shattered and forever lost in darkness. That, my friend, is the curse of free will. You can blame it all on fate and the universe, but in the end you alone decide if you’re going to lie down and let hell take you under, or if you’re going to stand strong in defiance of it all with your middle finger raised.’
Caleb stopped on the sidewalk to pierce him with a fiery gaze.
‘If you muster that courage to stand under fire and not go down, you will amass an inner strength that no one can touch. You won’t be another faceless, nameless, forgotten human in a long historical line of the defeated. You will be a steeled warrior, and a force to be reckoned with. And beneath the pain that lingers, you will have the comfort of knowing that you are the strongest of all. That when others caved and broke, you kept fighting even against hopeless odds.’
Illusion (Chronicles of Nick #5), Sherrilyn Kenyon
