Regina Brett Quotes

Cancer is messy and scary. You throw everything at it, but don't forget to throw love at it. It turns out that might be the best weapon of all.

Sometimes you have to disconnect to stay connected. Remember the old days when you had eye contact during a conversation? When everyone wasn't looking down at a device in their hands? We've become so focused on that tiny screen that we forget the big picture, the people right in front of us.

Eating something fresh out of the oven is like a hug you can taste.

There's so much living to be squeeze into the cracks of one little day. You can make someone laugh, smile, hope, sing, think.

When in doubt, take the next step.

Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

It's scary to make major changes, but we usually have enough courage to take the next right step. One small step and then another. That's what it takes to raise a child, to get a degree, to write a book, to do whatever it is your heart desires.

From now on, I pray like I mean it. No more hitting SEND over and over. It's changed my life. It has freed me from fear and opened up endless avenues for me as a writer, radio host, parent, wife, and friend. It has enhanced every relationship I'm in, starting with the most important one: my relationship with God. Real faith isn't praying without ceasing. It's believing that God heard you the first time.

Forgive everyone everything.

There are few places you can find silence. Air travel could be the last fortress of solitude.

When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.

It's easier to forgive those who hurt you than those who hurt the people you love.

Frame every so-called disaster with these words: In five years, will this matter?

Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

It's rare to find someone excited over jury duty. If they're out there, I've never met them. Not a one. When the summons for jury duty arrives in the mail, how many people scream, 'Yes!' and run to clear the calendar? None. Our first and only reaction is, 'Oh, no,' quickly followed by, 'How can I get out of this?'

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

When I was 41, I found a lump the size of a grape in my right breast. I ended up bald, sick and exhausted from surgeries, chemo and radiation treatments. Ah, but I got to live.

Bakers get excited over aprons. I love the soft cotton ones with pockets like my gramma and mom wore. They always kept a hankie tucked in one pocket, which wasn't sanitary, but was comforting to the child who needed a tear or nose wiped.

Each day is a precious gift to be savored and used, not left unopened and hoarded for a future that may never come.

Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

It's OK to let your children see you cry.

Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

If you're lucky enough to still have grandparents, visit them, cherish them and celebrate them while you can.

Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

Most of life is showing up. You do the best you can, which varies from day to day.

No one really has a bad life. Not even a bad day. Just bad moments.

It takes tough love to order kids to step away from the iPhone or iPad during dinner or to take the devices away if they're interrupting and interfering with everyone else's pleasure at a movie, concert or other public event.

I say we all take the pledge and stay home. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for what you have, not to save a few dollars to get more.

If you want to lose 40 pounds, you order salad instead of fries. If you want to be a better friend, you take the phone call instead of screening it. If you want to write a novel, you sit down and write a single paragraph. It's scary to make major changes, but we usually have enough courage to take the next right step.

We want someone else to act. But miracles aren't what other people do. They're what each of us does. They're what happens when ordinary people take extraordinary action. To be a miracle doesn't mean you have to tackle problems across the globe. It means making a difference in your own living room, cubicle, neighborhood, community.

A book store is a treasure chest. Every time you walk in one, you strike gold.

Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

We need to be smarter than our smart phones and realize the people we are with are more important than the people we aren't with, and way more important than the strangers we hope will tweet and like and share and Instagram whatever we're sending out into the cybersphere.

Pope Francis is not only changing the face of the Catholic Church, he's challenging us to be the face of God in the world by seeing the face of God in the person we least expect to see it, including the person in the mirror.

As much as the Pulitzer is the hallmark of journalism, I think what I love the most is when somebody says they took my column and it's in their wallet. I have had people open their wallet and show me a corner of a column.

It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

God isn't present in the past or future. The great 'I Am' is in the present moment. When I claim that presence, I can get through anything today.

For me, being Catholic was who I was and who I am, just like I'm Irish and Slovak. It's just so ingrained in us.

Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

Baking happens with ingredients that last for months and come to life inside a warm oven. Baking is slow and leisurely.

The secret to success, to parenting, to life, is to not count up the cost. Don't focus on all the steps it will take. Don't stare into the abyss at the giant leap it will take. That view will keep you from taking the next small step.

Over prepare, then go with the flow.

Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

When you hear the word 'cancer,' it's as if someone took the game of Life and tossed it in the air. All the pieces go flying. The pieces land on a new board. Everything has shifted. You don't know where to start.