Abby

“Perhaps each of us has a starved place, and each of us knows deep down what we need to fill that place. To find the courage to trust and honor the search, to follow the voice that tells us what we need to do, even when it doesn't seem to make sense, is a worthy pursuit.”
― Sue Bender, Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish

“Don't you miss the world?"
He is quiet; so is she. Both ride spirals of memory.
"I have the whole world right here," he says, and taps the cover of Darwin. "And in my radios. Right at my fingertips.”
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“The biggest surprise-- and it came as a great revalation-- was understanding that whatever happens, no matter how catastrophic or wonderful, it's just another patch. There are times when something special happens: a marriage, graduation, or the birth of a child. There's no denying it's a glorious patch. It might even be a red patch-- the one that pulls the whole quilt together. But I couldn't stop repeating, "It's just another patch.”
― Sue Bender, Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish

“It's the enjoyment of every step in the process of doing; everything, not only the isolated piece we label art. If accomplishing is the only goal, all that it takes to reach that goal is too slow, too fatiguing-- an obstacle to what you want to achieve. If you want to rush the accomplishment, it is an inevitable disappointment. Then you rush to something else. The disappointment is reaped over and over again. But if every step is pleasant, then the accomplishment becomes even more, because it is nourished by what is going on.”
― Sue Bender, Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish