“It’s only when we slow down that we notice all the beauty surrounding us.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“I thought about the seven straight days of rain and ultimately walking through the last of it jacketless and how so often we tend to protect ourselves from unharmful things.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“Perhaps it was just the offspring of being completely alone, moving at a pace and in a place that allowed for reflection. Maybe that’s how all the best insights are born.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“I began to appreciate the fact that this highest point in Virginia didn’t have a view, a lesson about expectations and maybe a metaphor about some efforts being only about the effort itself and not some tangible reward at the end.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“The clouds parted, and the trees were situated in such a way that the beams of light coming through the cracks felt like you could reach out and scoop a piece of the golden light into your hands.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“I wondered what I might have learned about myself had I given myself the freedom, when I was fresh out of college, the permission to wander and contemplate what I wanted from my life.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“I imagined the experience being similar to going your whole life believing you had perfect vision, then suddenly learning a new color, one that brought meaning to every other hue. How would I describe that? How would I convince former “me” of the importance? The more I thought about it, the less confident I was that I could, but the more convinced I was that I should try—not to the former me, of course, but to everyone.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“Wasn’t that the whole point of the trail? To embrace growth as a journey, not some finished destination? To be okay just wandering, not sure where that wandering might take you?”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“The first was a touch unsettling, but before long it was more therapeutic than scary, listening to the soft thunder rolling through the hills and valleys around you. There was a connectedness to nature that the storm brought, almost like a deep voice singing to you as you lay in your tent.”
Source: Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life.
“All good writing reflects and illuminates life; Fast Funny Women holds up a compact mirror. In it you'll see yourself. With luck, you'll laugh.”
Source: Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction