Quote Inspiration: Shauna Niequist

I'm starting this series because I love finding quotes that inspire me. It's amazing how a few sentences have the power to change your perspective and offer you encouragement for the day. One writer that I always find this with is Shauna Niequist. I fell in love with her writing the moment I picked up Bittersweet in Barnes & Noble. Her words are unique and lyrical and always move me, but my favorite thing about her writing is its honesty. Shauna isn't afraid to write about the things we try to brush under the rug- the things we fear will shatter the illusion that we have it all together. I get the feeling she's okay with shattering that illusion about herself, and I love that because it gives us the freedom to do the same.

Here are some of my favorite, thought-provoking quotes from her books:

On Living in the Moment

"But this is what I’m finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I’m waiting for, that adventure, that move-score-worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets – this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of use will ever experience."

On the Future

“It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.”

"I know that life is busy and hard and that there's crushing pressure to just settle down and get a real job and khaki pants and a haircut. But don't. Please don't. Please keep believing that life can be better, brighter, broader because of the art that you make. Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making your art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to-day world a little more bearable.”

On Grace

“We don't learn to love each other well in the easy moments. Anyone is good company at a cocktail party. But love is born when we misunderstand one another and make it right, when we cry in the kitchen, when we show up uninvited with magazines and granola bars, in an effort to say, I love you.”

“Grace isn’t about having a second chance; grace is having so many chances that you could use them through all eternity and never come up empty. It’s when you finally realize that the other shoe isn’t going to drop, ever.”

#2015 #life