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Pain is mandatory for all of us. It’s what teaches us. Suffering is what’s optional. That’s what happens when we try to skip over the pain.

Glennon Doyle

We’re told that to be successful girls, we have to be small and quiet. Yet to be successful humans, we have to become big and have a voice. There’s an inherent contradiction.
GLENNON DOYLE

Human Quiet Success Voice Woman
We are – each and every one of us – unlearning misogyny. It’s going to take some time. But be aware and active of your prejudices. Notice when they kick in and resist. Fight to stay soft and open. Step back and squint hard.
GLENNON DOYLE

Fight Learning Oneself Resistance Stay Time
Rock bottom is a crisis. And everyone wants to avoid crisis. But what ‘crisis’ means literally is ‘to sift’ – like a child who goes to the beach, lifts up the sand, and watches all the sand fall away, hoping that there’s treasure left over. That’s what crisis does.
GLENNON DOYLE

Avoid Children Fall Growth Hard Time Hope Misery
If you’re not okay, you might as well not pretend you are, especially since life has a way of holding us down until we utter that magic word: help! That’s when angels rush to your side.
GLENNON DOYLE

Angel Help Hold On Life Magic Yourself
To me, full-time mothering felt like way too much and yet not nearly enough. Lost in a landslide of diapers, birthday parties, and others’ needs, I ached to reestablish myself.
GLENNON DOYLE

Enough Establishment Lost Mom Myself Pain Time
When folks decide they love any institution more than the individual souls inside them, they’re missing the mark.
GLENNON DOYLE

Decision Love Missing People Soul
I’ve seen my name on marquees and bowed to standing ovations. I’ve also been called a fraud, a mental case, a heretic. People all over the country wait in line to hug me or curse me.
GLENNON DOYLE

Abuse Country Mental Myself People See Wait
Over time, I have come to believe that ‘brave’ does not mean what we think it does. It does not mean ‘being afraid and doing it anyway.’ Nope. Brave means listening to the still small voice inside and doing as it says. Regardless of what the rest of the world is saying.
GLENNON DOYLE

Believe Listening Myself Thinking Time Voice World
Love is kind, right? It’s not about calling someone out on every little thing you feel.
GLENNON DOYLE

Feeling Kind Love Right Yourself
We should live out our particular brand of faith, sure – but we should never force our brand of faith upon anyone else. All violence starts with the desire to change others and then never, ever ends.
GLENNON DOYLE

Change Desire End Faith Live Ourselves Start Violence
Being a mother is a little like ‘Groundhog’s Day.’ It’s getting out of bed and doing the exact same things again and again and yet again – and it’s watching it all get undone again and again and yet again. It’s humbling, monotonous, mind-numbing, and solitary.
GLENNON DOYLE

Bed Humble Mom Solitude Time
If you ask a woman who she is, she’ll tell you who she serves and sometimes what she does. But that isn’t the whole story.
GLENNON DOYLE

Herself Story Woman Yourself
The most important thing on Earth is for all of us to make this sentence true: Compassion is what people do.
GLENNON DOYLE

Compassion Important People True
I ask only child-free pals for parenting advice because they’re the only ones sane and well-rested enough to have any real insight.
GLENNON DOYLE

Advice Children Enough Myself Parents Reality
I am not, at the end of the day, a mother, a wife, a writer, an activist, a friend. I am a child of God. That’s who I was when I came into this world and who I’ll be when I leave it. No one can take that from me.
GLENNON DOYLE

End Friendship Leaving Mom Myself Wife World Writing
Making sensible family rules around cell phones and driving is a way to love yourself, your marriage, your children, and the world well.
GLENNON DOYLE

Children Family Love Marriage Phone Rule World Yourself

Pain is mandatory for all of us. It’s what teaches us. Suffering is what’s optional. That’s what happens when we try to skip over the pain.

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Pain is mandatory for all of us. It’s what teaches us. Suffering is what’s optional. That’s what happens when we try to skip over the pain.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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