Alice J. Wisler > Quotes

“You can't go back. What's done is done. Unrequited love is never easy. Time heals all wounds. I kept repeating such cliches to myself, hoping that they, like medicine, would take away the sting.

They didn't.”
― Alice J. Wisler, A Wedding Invitation

“When life gives you a perfect afternoon, you have to guard against anything that tries to steal it away.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“Sometimes a person cannot continue to keep her emotions inside, letting them silently brush against her heart like waves on the shore. Sometimes there's a call for speaking up, and out.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“And most of all we smile at each other as if we can't believe how happy we feel just being together just breathing in the same space.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“I hold the door to the post office open for a weathered man in a wheelchair. He is gracious, thanking me. One leg is missing, and just as I notice this, I see the sticker on the back of his chair: VIETNAM VETS.

My thoughts jumble as an ache brews in my heart. I think of war and how it destroys, divides, and damages. I see the faces of those in the refugee camp and those who found their names on The List and are now in America. I want to tell this wounded soldier that I am sorry for his loss and for the abandonment he may have felt upon his return. I want to say other things, but right now I'm just honored to hold the door for him.”
― Alice J. Wisler, A Wedding Invitation

“I spoke to God. God heard me. Sometimes that is all I need to know.”
― Alice J. Wisler, A Wedding Invitation

“I buy an ice-cream sandwich at the Stop-N-Go on my way home. The taste takes me back to childhood. Back when life was dreaming about things to come and believing that if you really wanted something bad enough, it could and would be yours. I remember praying for a bike for Christmas, and there it was. We prayed for Minnie's gerbil to live and it did. Later, in high school, I asked God for guidance about where to go to college, and that very day, like a kite floating straight from heaven, the acceptance letter came from UNC-Charlotte.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“I really wanted to get into this art school about two years before I started working at the Grille. I applied and waited. But when the acceptance letter arrived, my heart had done some changing so that being molded by God was far more exciting than the acceptance.... I changed in the meantime. The thing that was so important to me when I first wanted it wasn't as vital when it happened. God had changed my heart in the process." (Buck)”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“With the president’s signing of Executive Order 9066, Japanese-Americans were told to leave their homes, sell their businesses and possessions and move inland.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Under the Silk Hibiscus

“Perhaps the moral to that story was not to let the circumstances of life get the best of you. Perhaps it was being able to make the most of anything, even something as undesirable as dust.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Under the Silk Hibiscus

“Sometimes life's biggest blessings come in the wrapped packages that you never expected and didn't choose. They are just there for you with your name on the card, waiting to be opened.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“do not fret—it leads only to evil.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Getting Out of Bed in the Morning: Reflections of Comfort in Heartache

“There are things in life you hope to do some day - like ride in a hot air balloon or go to Paris- and there are things that you know you will never do because, in a nutshell, the desire isn't there.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“Forgiveness is the gift you receive in order to freely give it to others.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“And as the room grows dark, I wonder at how we humans are born to pain, experience it constantly, and yet never learn the techniques of dodging it. We just learn to cope, to live. And some of us, if we are lucky enough, to thrive, in spite of it all.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Rain Song

“It's funny how humans are never quite content with what they have. Yet, according to Grandpa, the key to happiness lies in putting your whole hand into God's.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“So often it is the small moments that bring the assurance of contentment. These can come in tiny waves, standing out from the rest of the minutes and hours of a day, and as swiftly as they arrive, they leave, slipping into an ordinary moment. You have to be on your toes; you have to be ready to embrace them.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“I lean back in my chair and turn on my computer. I have to admit that writing the list did help. Another point for Dad, king of the lists. Bert asks if”
― Alice J. Wisler, Hatteras Girl

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. —PSALM 62:5”
― Alice J. Wisler, Getting Out of Bed in the Morning: Reflections of Comfort in Heartache

“Pray this benediction for yourself and for those who have wronged you: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). Grace. Love. Fellowship.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Getting Out of Bed in the Morning: Reflections of Comfort in Heartache

“I want peace deep inside my heart, lodged so deeply and firmly that no one can ever take it away. How sweet that would be.”
― Alice J. Wisler, How Sweet It Is

“that there is some place better than our earthly home—a space where we are accepted no matter what, a banquet table where we are called by name and not ridiculed for being different.”
― Alice J. Wisler, Getting Out of Bed in the Morning: Reflections of Comfort in Heartache