He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered. Cheryl Strayed More Quotes by Cheryl Strayed More Quotes From Cheryl Strayed It's hard to go. It's scary and lonely...and half the time you'll be wondering why the hell you're in Cincinnati or Austin or North Dakota or Mongolia or wherever your melodious little finger-plucking heinie takes you. There will be boondoggles and discombobulated days, freaked-out nights and metaphorical flat tires. But it will be soul-smashingly beautiful... It will open up your life. Cheryl Strayed lonely beautiful night Jump high and hard with intention and heart. Cheryl Strayed success positive life And if you're gonna be a writer, you just truly have to be a writer. You have to throw yourself into it and deal with the negative consequences of that. And there are negative consequences. I mean, there are. But, it's also true that you wouldn't be interviewing me right now if I had worked at the post office. You wouldn't. I would be still writing, but I wouldn't have gotten as far as I've gotten, because I wouldn't have had the time. Cheryl Strayed office writing mean There is a path toward the light. The one that goes blink, blink, blink inside your chest when you know what you're doing is right. Listen to it. Trust it. Let it make you stronger than you are. Cheryl Strayed stronger light path I've learned so much as both a writer and a human. Cheryl Strayed ive-learned humans I had problems a therapist couldn't solve; grief that no man in a room could ameliorate. Cheryl Strayed grief men rooms Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don't know what it is yet. Cheryl Strayed blue writing book He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy tale. Cheryl Strayed ordinary men memories ...the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap oil or potable water or even common sense, but mercy. Cheryl Strayed common-sense oil water There are so many things to be tortured about, sweet pea. So many torturous things in this life. Don't let the man who doesn't love you be one of them. Cheryl Strayed love-you sweet men I didn't feel sad or happy. I didn't feel proud or ashamed. I only felt that in spite of all the things I'd done wrong, in getting myself here, I'd done right. Cheryl Strayed ashamed proud done …the death of my mother was the thing that made me believe the most deeply in my safety: nothing bad could happen to me, I thought. The worst thing already had. Cheryl Strayed safety mother believe The amount that she loved us was beyond her reach. It could not be quantified or contained. It was the ten thousand named things in the Tao Te Ching’s universe and then ten thousand more. Her love was full-throated and all-encompassing and unadorned. Every day she blew through her entire reserve. Cheryl Strayed reserves tao-te-ching thousand It's a long life, sweetheart, and time heals all wounds. Cheryl Strayed time-heals sweetheart long We like to pretend that our generous impulses come naturally. But the reality is we often become our kindest, most ethical selves only by seeing what it feels like to be a selfish jackass first. It's the reason... we have to get burned before we understand the power of fire; the reason our most meaningful relationships are so often those that continued beyond the very juncture at which they came the closest to ending. Cheryl Strayed selfish meaningful reality Acceptance is a small quiet room. Cheryl Strayed acceptance quiet rooms Work hard. Do good. Be incredible! Cheryl Strayed incredibles hard hard-work When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn’t “mean anything” because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes. Cheryl Strayed daughter eye mean What’s important is that you make the leap. Jump high and hard with intention and heart. Pay no mind to the vision that the commission made up. It’s up to you to make your life. Take what you have and stack it up like a tower of teetering blocks. Build your dream around that. Cheryl Strayed block dream heart Small things such as this have saved me: how much I love my mother — even after all these years. How powerfully I carry her within me. My grief is tremendous but my love is bigger. So is yours. You are not grieving your son’s death because his death was ugly and unfair. You’re grieving it because you loved him truly. The beauty in that is greater than the bitterness of his death. Cheryl Strayed grief mother son
