I didn't do anything but sit quietly and pay attention to the fact that my hollow chest was still beating. I was still alive and could see that the new normal wasn't so bad. - Dee Williams
Over time, I discovered that learning new things doesn't always liberate you. Instead it makes you wonder if your pants are on backward or if the trees are holding the sky up - it makes you question all of your assumptions and conventions. - Dee Williams
I felt like a champion because I was figuring shit out. I was a doer and a getter-doner, and it was okay to be identified by the neighbors as the little lady who had a dump truck of manure delivered, a load that made the entire neighborhood smell like a dairy barn for weeks. - Dee Williams
The library made me feel safe, as if every question had an answer and there was nothing to be afraid of, as long as I could sort through another volume. - Dee Williams
Sometimes the word 'gratitude' feels too thin to explain things. - Dee Williams
Ultimately, I hoped the tiny-house guy was similar to me: a sane person without a big agenda, who simply wanted a way to make sense of the world, to create a new map with a big X in the middle labeled "Home," even if that meant shrinking his world down to the size of an area rug. - Dee Williams
Over time, I realized I wasn't necessarily seeing people or things at their best or worst; instead, I was simply seeing things as they were.There didn't seem to be a moral high road to take in most situations, and "What's the right thing to do?" wasn't an easy question. - Dee Williams
Oddly, I found myself calmer than I'd been in a long while. Maybe it was simply because my muscles ached or maybe because I felt that nothing was more compelling than the stack of wood that was waiting in Camelli's garage. - Dee Williams
I never saw this coming - the little house was working its magic, connecting me to people and materials I never would have guessed would find their way into the picture. - Dee Williams
Change what you can, darlin'. That's my best advice. - Dee Williams
The space reminded me of the small hay-bale clubhouses and scrap-wood tree forts that my brothers and I had made as kids - high up spaces where you could see things differently, where you could get your bearings. - Dee Williams
Maybe is wasn't love so much as a fear of losing everything I'd accomplished. I was afraid to let go. - Dee Williams
I went to Guatemala to help build a school but left wondering what "help" would really look like... I hadn't prepared myself for how humbled I'd feel, or how hard it would be to find my footing when witnessing a cycle of poverty that seemed to defy any sort of help. - Dee Williams
I wanted to say a lot but wasn't sure where to start; people don't want to hear about how your heart has melted into the dirt under your house. - Dee Williams
I thought: This is what the living do. And I swooned at the ordinary nature of the task and myself, at my chapped hands and square palms, at the way my wrists bent and fingers flexed inside this living body. - Dee Williams
It was true; books had saved me in my home remodeling projects, but they fell short in teaching me how to trust my instincts, and how to stop thinking with my educated brain and more with my kneecaps and butt cheeks. - Dee Williams