“Appreciation is the purest,strongest form of love. It is the outward-bound kind of love that asks for nothing and gives everything.”
―
Kelly Corrigan,
The Middle Place
“That's how it works: someone important believes in us, loudly and with conviction and against all substantiation, and over time, we begin to believe, too - not in our shot at perfection, mind you, but in the good enough version of us that they have reflected.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“If John Lennon was right that life is what happens when you're making other plans, parenthood is what happens when everything is flipped over and spilling everywhere and you can't find a towel or a sponge or your "inside" voice.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“Learn to say no. And when you do, don’t complain and don’t explain. Every excuse you make is like an invitation to ask you again in a different way.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Even when all the paperwork-a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns-clearly indicates you're an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you're still somebody's daughter.” ― Kelly Corrigan, The Middle Place
“Minds don't rest; they reel and wander and fixate and roll back and reconsider because it's like this, having a mind. Hearts don't idle; they swell and constrict and break and forgive and behold because it's like this, having a heart. Lives don't last; they thrill and confound and circle and overflow and disappear because it's like this, having a life.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“And it occurs to me that maybe the reason my mother was so exhausted all the time wasn’t because she was doing so much but because she was feeling so much.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“Accepting things as they are is difficult. A lot of people go to war with reality.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“The mother is the most essential piece on the board, the one you must protect. Only she has the range. Only she can move in multiple directions. Once she's gone, it's a whole different game.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“Being in our lives *as they are* is probably one of the most common struggles people have.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Your father's the glitter but I'm the glue.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“But now I see there's no such thing as "a" woman, "one" woman. There are dozens inside every one of them. I probably should have figured this out sooner, but what child can see the women inside her mom, what with all the Motherness blocking out everything else?” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“This tug-of-war often obscures what's also happening between us. I am your mother, the first mile of your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations. That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness. You can't imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“We're never ready for the things that happen. When the big stuff happens, we're always looking in the other direction.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“One friend told me her one big takeaway from three years and $11,000 of therapy was Learn to say no. And when you do, don't complain and don't explain. Every excuse you make is like an invitation to ask you again in a different way.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“I love you.The first time the words pass between two people: electrifying.Ten thousand times later: cause for marvel.The last time: the dream you revisit over and over and over again.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Like the padre said, life is a mystery to be lived. Live your mystery.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“But the truth is that I’m always teetering between a mature acceptance of life’s immutables and a childish railing against the very same.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“I try to be one of the exceptional people who can live with the complexity of things, who are at peace with the unknown and the unknowable, who leave all the cages open. I tell myself: There's so much that you don't know, you can't know, you aren't ever going to know.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“That's how it works: someone important believes in us, loudly and with conviction and against all substantiation, and over time, we begin to believe, too - not in our shot at perfection, mind you, but in the good enough version of us that they have reflected.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“If John Lennon was right that life is what happens when you're making other plans, parenthood is what happens when everything is flipped over and spilling everywhere and you can't find a towel or a sponge or your "inside" voice.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“Learn to say no. And when you do, don’t complain and don’t explain. Every excuse you make is like an invitation to ask you again in a different way.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Even when all the paperwork-a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns-clearly indicates you're an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you're still somebody's daughter.” ― Kelly Corrigan, The Middle Place
“Minds don't rest; they reel and wander and fixate and roll back and reconsider because it's like this, having a mind. Hearts don't idle; they swell and constrict and break and forgive and behold because it's like this, having a heart. Lives don't last; they thrill and confound and circle and overflow and disappear because it's like this, having a life.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“And it occurs to me that maybe the reason my mother was so exhausted all the time wasn’t because she was doing so much but because she was feeling so much.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“Accepting things as they are is difficult. A lot of people go to war with reality.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“The mother is the most essential piece on the board, the one you must protect. Only she has the range. Only she can move in multiple directions. Once she's gone, it's a whole different game.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“Being in our lives *as they are* is probably one of the most common struggles people have.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Your father's the glitter but I'm the glue.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“But now I see there's no such thing as "a" woman, "one" woman. There are dozens inside every one of them. I probably should have figured this out sooner, but what child can see the women inside her mom, what with all the Motherness blocking out everything else?” ― Kelly Corrigan, Glitter and Glue
“This tug-of-war often obscures what's also happening between us. I am your mother, the first mile of your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations. That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness. You can't imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“We're never ready for the things that happen. When the big stuff happens, we're always looking in the other direction.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Lift
“One friend told me her one big takeaway from three years and $11,000 of therapy was Learn to say no. And when you do, don't complain and don't explain. Every excuse you make is like an invitation to ask you again in a different way.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“I love you.The first time the words pass between two people: electrifying.Ten thousand times later: cause for marvel.The last time: the dream you revisit over and over and over again.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“Like the padre said, life is a mystery to be lived. Live your mystery.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“But the truth is that I’m always teetering between a mature acceptance of life’s immutables and a childish railing against the very same.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
“I try to be one of the exceptional people who can live with the complexity of things, who are at peace with the unknown and the unknowable, who leave all the cages open. I tell myself: There's so much that you don't know, you can't know, you aren't ever going to know.” ― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say
