It was only after her death that I realized who she was: the apparently magical force at the center of our family who'd kept us all invisibly spinnin… - Cheryl Strayed

You go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can’t go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and by allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage.

our most meaningful relationships are so often those that continued beyond the very juncture at which they came the closest to ending.

One of the worst things about losing my mother at the age I did was how very much there was to regret. Small things that stung now: all the times I’d scorned her kindness by rolling my eyes or physically recoiled in response to her touch;