Sugar
It’s been a busy week visiting my dear, dear Aunt Fran (Zia Francesca) She is 87 and will most likely be going into hospice soon. Holding her hand and reflecting on her life and all the love she gave has been very poignant and also a beautiful reminder to live each day to the fullest.
On this same trip, I also visited Melissa, a dear young friend who is pregnant with her first child. She is due in August. Hearing about all their plans for the future was so beautiful to witness.
Life is so full, isn’t it?
Melissa gave me a powerful book, “Tiny Beautiful Things.” By Cheryl Strayed. Have you heard of it? It is so good!! It’s a compilation of advice columns she wrote as the anonymous “Sugar.” It’s really powerful because she shares her own personal heartbreaks, mistakes, and hard-earned wisdom and shows us how to choose presence, love and courage even when it’s hard.
Everyone carries an unseen story. Stayed brings us back to humility and compassion and asks us to soften our judgment just a little – towards ourselves and others. Her advice helps us forgive, let go and remember we are not alone in our struggles.
One of my favorite columns in the book is at the very end when a reader asks, “Sugar, what would you tell your twentysomething self if you could talk to her now.?”
Here is one of her responses from that question that I loved: “ Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direction relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people who you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who you believe to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.”
Her three-and-a-half-page response to that one question is truly beautiful and absolutely worth reading. Yep. Go out and get this one. You will thank me. (I say that a lot, don’t I?)
I leave you with a few more Cheryl Strayed quotes.
“You get to decide what you want to do with your life.”
“It’s okay to accept that you’re not okay.”
“Compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got.”
“Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose.”
“You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule.”
“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”
Love and gratitude,