Lauren

“It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools—friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty—and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds, they’re enough.”
― Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“We all hope for miracles, all the time,” I said slowly. “But I sometimes have to remind myself what a miracle really is. It’s something truly unexpected, something that usually does not happen. It’s something really exceptional. Which is why it’s a miracle. I completely understand why you are hoping and praying for a miracle. I would do the same. But I also want to make sure we have another plan in place if the miracle isn’t part of God’s plan for Jack.”
― Sunita Puri, That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour