The complicated thing about friends is that sometimes they are totally wrong about us and sometimes they are totally right and it's almost always only in retrospect that we know which is which. Cheryl Strayed More Quotes by Cheryl Strayed More Quotes From Cheryl Strayed I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free. Cheryl Strayed free-spirit balls spirit I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it. Cheryl Strayed amazed surprising needed The universe, I’d learned, was never, ever kidding. Cheryl Strayed universe Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear in our lives. Cheryl Strayed anecdotes bears art What if I forgave myself? I thought. What if I forgave myself even though I'd done something I shouldn't have? What if I was a liar and a cheat and there was no excuse for what I'd done other than because it was what I wanted and needed to do? What if I was never redeemed? What if I already was? Cheryl Strayed what-if done liars A lot of people go off and have fun adventures, or hard adventures, and their impulse is to write about them right away. What really makes a difference is having some perspective on what happened. Cheryl Strayed writing fun adventure I had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be—strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good. And the PCT would make me that way. There, I’d walk and think about my entire life. I’d find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous. Cheryl Strayed different strong thinking Of all the things I’d been skeptical about, I didn’t feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me. Cheryl Strayed skeptical wilderness clarity Hiking the PCT was the maddening effort of knitting that sweater and unraveling it over and over again. As if everything gained was inevitably lost Cheryl Strayed sweaters knitting hiking I felt something growing in me that was strong and real. Cheryl Strayed growing strong real I'd walk and think about my entire life. I'd find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous. Cheryl Strayed ridiculous made thinking So release yourself from that. Don't be strategic or coy. Strategic and coy are for jackasses. Be brave. Be authentic. Practice saying the word 'love' to the people you love so when it matters the most to say it, you will. Cheryl Strayed brave practice people Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn't long before I actually wasn't afraid. Cheryl Strayed begets long Their leaving made me melancholy, though I also felt something like relief when they disappeared into the dark trees. I hadn't needed to get anything from my pack; I'd only wanted to be alone. Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren't a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was. Cheryl Strayed leaving dark tree The obliterated place is equal parts destruction and creation. The obliterated place is pitch black and bright light. It is water and parched earth. It is mud and it is manna. The real work of deep grief is making a home there. Cheryl Strayed grief real home Of course you want someone special to love you. A majority of the people who write to me inquire about how they can get the same thing... Unique as every letter is, the point each writer reaches is the same: I want love and I'm afraid I'll never get it. It's hard to answer those letters because I'm an advice columnist, not a fortune-teller. I have words instead of a crystal ball. I can't say when you'll get love or how you'll find it or even promise that you will. I can only say you are worthy of it and that it's never too much to ask for it. Cheryl Strayed unique love-you writing My mother's last word to me clanks inside me like an iron bell that someone beats at dinnertime: love, love, love, love, love. Cheryl Strayed funny-relationship iron mother I taught workshops at universities. I wrote for magazines. This took time and insane amounts of juggling, but it's how I earned a living. Cheryl Strayed magazines taught insane I had to go on without my mother, even though I was suffering terribly, grieving her. Cheryl Strayed suffering mother grieving I am, as they say, the classic starving artist. Cheryl Strayed starving classic artist
