One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, donโt look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Donโt hold it up and say itโs longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didnโt say for the rest of your life. Say thank you.
Cheryl StrayedDon't worry. Don't apologize. Don't cower behind the defeated security of there is no 'room for someone like me'. There isn't room for any one of us. It's up to you to make a place for yourself in the world. So get to work.
Cheryl StrayedBut compassion isn't about solutions. It's about giving all the love that you've got.
Cheryl StrayedEach night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally Id see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that I'd realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real.
Cheryl StrayedBlood is thicker than water, my mother had always said when I was growing up, a sentiment Iโd often disputed. But it turned out that it didnโt matter whether she was right or wrong. They both flowed out of my cupped palms.
Cheryl Strayed