You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.
Cheryl StrayedRead
What if what made me do all those things everyone thought I shouldn't have done was what also had got me here? What if I was never redeemed? What if I already was?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the idea that our choices, whether deemed good or bad, shape who we are and our current situation.
Cheryl Strayed's quote delves into the complexity of self-reflection and personal growth. It challenges the conventional notions of right and wrong by suggesting that every decision, even those seen as mistakes, contributes to our journey and identity. The contemplation of redemption raises questions about the nature of forgiveness and self-acceptance, ultimately leading to the realization that our experiences, both positive and negative, define us just as much as any perceived redemption might.
Themes
ChoicesRedemptionIdentitySelf-ReflectionGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about embracing one's journey.
More from Cheryl Strayed
All quotes →The obliterated place is equal parts destruction and creation. The obliterated place is pitch black and bright light. It is water and parched earth. It is mud and it is manna. The real work of deep grief is making a home there.
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I walked all those miles, I learned all those lessons. It's as if my new life was the gift I got at the end of a long struggle.
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There is a path toward the light. The one that goes blink, blink, blink inside your chest when you know what you're doing is right. Listen to it. Trust it. Let it make you stronger than you are.
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Each evening, I ached for the shelter of my tent, for the smallest sense that something was shielding me from the entire rest of the world, keeping me safe not from danger, but from vastness itself. I loved the dim, clammy dark of my tent, the cozy familiarity of the way I arranged my few belongings all around me each night.
Cheryl StrayedRead
Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can't cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It's just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.
Cheryl StrayedRead
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