Undone Quotes

“But a full life doesn’t mean an easy life. In many cases, it means just the opposite.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“I could either hang on to fear or hold on to my faith. But I could not hang on to both.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. — ANNE LAMOTT, Bird by Bird”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“Peace isn’t a byproduct of control, the payout of a happy conclusion. Peace is the infiltrating, life-giving presence of a very real God. One who loves nothing more than to step into the middle of locked and darkened rooms and impossible circumstances, close enough to touch.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“There is strength in empty. Not the kind of strength we wish for. We want polished strength, the kind that wears a cape and leaps tall buildings with a single bound. I couldn’t leap or fly or save anyone from catastrophe. In fact, I could barely show up. But I did. Show up. And that ended up being a strength all of its own.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“Worry, like cancer, consumes life, eating away at a person from the inside out. It exaggerates the unknown and clouds the known until the worried person sees only the horror of what might be, rather than the beauty of what already is.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“authenticity ministers far more than put-togetherness. And vulnerability builds a far stronger bond than perfection.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“In all of my mothering failings, I’d managed to get one thing right. Love. And it mattered most of all.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“don’t know what’s more exhausting about parenting: the getting up early, or acting like you know what you’re doing. — JIM GAFFIGAN, Dad Is Fat”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“Where is my faith? In myself, more often than not. Which is why an unexpected squall — every last one of them over the span of two years — unraveled me. A boat anchored to itself is not anchored at all.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“Faith is choosing the anchor of your focus. It’s about turning your eyes away from the questions that lead to fear, and instead locking eyes with the one who knows the answers.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“horror”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“It’d be easier to pack a suitcase, go on a short-term adventure, and return home a week or two later to wash the dirt out of my clothes, put the suitcase in the closet, and log my memories in a scrapbook. A worthy act of service? Yes, of course. But neatly packaged and not too interrupting. A mission trip would allow me to keep my grandiose promises to manageable portions, something that didn’t stretch and sting to the point of sacrifice.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life

“This is a rough-draft life. And whatever I didn’t like about today, I can always edit tomorrow.”
― Michele Cushatt, Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life