Joan Anderson > Quotes

“When will I ever learn to accept what is given instead of always yearning for more? My lavish expectations too often tarnish my blessings.”
― Joan Anderson, A Year By The Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman

“I must live a little each day, greet the sun as it rises and revel in its setting, swim naked, sip coffee and wine by the shore, generate new ideas, admire myself, talk to animals, meditate, laugh, risk adventures. I must try to be soft, not hard; fluid, not rigid; tender, not cold; find rather than seek. I have been embraced by the sea, tested by its elements, emptied of anxiety, cleansed with fresh thought. In the process, I have recovered myself.”
― Joan Anderson, A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman

“The goal is for your mid-life crisis to turn into a mid-life discovery.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“That's the magic of life. It happens in ways that challenges our plans.”
― Joan Anderson, Walk on the Beach, A

“I couldn't imagine life unless I could continue to have powerful experiences in the wild, and I never wanted to be in a place where I wanted to do something but my body couldn't....”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“Nothing is worth more than my own company, taking care of my mind and spirit has proved to be more valuable than appeasing the crowd. It seems as if I have entered a new age- the age of re-enchantment-where I thrive on discovery, diversity, variety, spontaneity, and most days are self-directed, not programmed by invitations and obligations but, rather, determined by impulse, chance encounters, on the spot decisions, bravery, and new adventures, one after another.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“I wish for all of you that you remain as unfinished as the shoreline along the beach and that you continue to transcend yourselves again and again.”
― Joan Anderson, Walk on the Beach, A

“You must not fret. There is no arriving, ever. It is all a continual becoming.”
― Joan Anderson, A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman

“When you are alone, you find out who you are capable of being.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“I began to change my life the moment I stood in the middle of the problem and impulsively, bravely, daringly chose to act in a new way.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“The important thing is to share what you know. Be generative and pass it on. This is what makes all the difference.”
― Joan Anderson, Walk on the Beach, A

“How have I changed?
I know now that I belong right in the middle of every dilemma. The solution to my problems is not to avoid them, or to follow a scripted response. I need to have enough confidence, enough self-respect, enough bravery to meet each challenge head on and pursue an original solution.”
― Joan Anderson, A Year By The Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman

“Seek out adventures, not just to reach one goal or another, but for the journey itself and the lessons each experience teaches you....
Climbing mountains or backpacking in the wilderness inevitably changes you. The person you were at the onset is not who you become when the journey is finished. That is why I am always looking for the next adventure.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life

“There is silence, only the pitter-patter of rain hitting the skylight above my bed. Do I roll over and fall back asleep or get up? This is always the dilemma. Long ago I lived for such rainy days, when I would make myself a cup of cocoa, climb back into bed, snuggle under the comforter, and just listem to the storm outside. Perhaps I would benefit from doing the same today. Recently, when I sought council from a minister friends, she affirmed my conclusion that I was stuck. "You're in the dessert," she said, "and you're parched, but not dried out." As she talked, I pictured myself sitting on a stump in the middle of a vast wasteland, surrounded by nothing save miles of adobe-colored, hardened soil, with no escape route insight. "You've got not alternative but to simply sit still and listen. In time you'll hear the answers.”
― Joan Anderson, A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman