The River Is Waiting Quotes

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.’—Corrie ten Boom.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Having hope is kind of like praying. Like asking God for something and hoping He’ll hear you. But if you have an expectation, it’s more like a demand than a prayer. Like you’re saying, here’s what I expect, God, so make it happen for me. See? Like you’re the one who gets to give the orders.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“I used to use alcohol to drown out my problems,” the woman says, “then it finally dawned on me that my problems were better swimmers than I was.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“you can look back at the past, just don’t keep staring at it.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“If you focus on what’s harmonious and beautiful in your present surroundings, harmony and beauty will follow you.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“I open the front and read the dedication: “To those who live in prisons of their own or others’ making.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“ ‘Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.’—Corrie ten Boom.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“way. Having hope is kind of like praying. Like asking God for something and hoping He’ll hear you. But if you have an expectation, it’s more like a demand than a prayer. Like you’re saying, here’s what I expect, God, so make it happen for me. See? Like you’re the one who gets to give the orders.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Then it clobbers you like a wave you didn’t see coming. Crashes into you and pulls you under so that”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength, carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Having hope is kind of like praying. Like asking God for something and hoping He’ll hear you. But if you have an expectation”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“When you’re an active alcoholic, you give up everything for one thing. But when you commit to sobriety, you give up one thing for everything. Okay, thanks for listening. I’ll share the time.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE March 2019 Day 600 of 1,095 A red-haired boy”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“No, sir. I’m Detective Tunisia Sparks, Three Rivers PD.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Then it clobbers you like a wave you didn’t see coming. Crashes into you and pulls you under so that, for a few seconds, you can’t breathe.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Trump lies every time he opens his mouth and we all just shake our heads and let him get away with it.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“comes to names… But think of it this way. Having hope is kind of like praying. Like asking God for something and hoping He’ll hear you.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.’—”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” After a while, I start to feel calmer.… In the morning, I wake up to the sun winking”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Hope springs eternal?”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“She says she believes that painters and writers are magicians of a sort—that they invite us to lose ourselves in their work and, in doing so, find ourselves.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Talking to Manny, gets me thinking about how most of us must carry our bruised childhoods on our back when we come here.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Based on the five senses. You concentrate on five things you can see. A calendar, for example. A photograph. Then four things you can touch or feel: your shoe, a book, anything within reach. Then three things you hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. What you are doing is giving your mind something to do other than surrender to the terror.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“having hope was never going to hurt me, but having unreasonable expectations could clobber me and start me drinking and drugging again. I remember trying to get away from him because I was like, who was he to give me advice? But what he said stuck with me and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that what he said was true. Knowing the difference between hope and expectations has helped me ever since.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“It reminds me of being in here versus being on the outside, where life goes on at a busy pace. In here, our lives—and sometimes our deaths—mostly go unnoticed.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“AA says we need to have faith in “a god of our understanding,” so let’s say for example’s sake that some undefinable spirit does exist—that it’s not all just random. Maybe that spirit is speaking to me through the sound of moving water. And maybe that sound is telling me to trust that not everything is stuck and stagnant—that forward movement is possible. That by the time I’ve done my three years here, the sun will come up and light the path that leads me back to my wife and daughter.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“to live means to suffer, then to die alone.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“The river is loud tonight.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“Seeing the river in motion and hearing it up close is all I need.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting

“When you’re an active alcoholic, you give up everything for one thing. But when you commit to sobriety, you give up one thing for everything.”
― Wally Lamb, The River Is Waiting