Find the Good Quotes

“People don’t gather after a death to mourn, but rather to reaffirm why life matters and to remember to exult in the only one we’ll ever have. We hold funerals, memorials, celebrations—whatever you want to call them—to seek and to find the heart of the matter of this trip we call Life.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“I have a friend who says we spend the first half of our life building it and the second half preventing it from falling apart. I’d rather be under construction when I die.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way.” Which is a roundabout way”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“I believe gratitude comes from a place in your soul that knows the story could have ended differently, and often does, and I also know that gratitude is at the heart of finding the good in this world--especially in our relationships with the ones we love.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“True love is above all reliable. So we do the best we can to follow through, and that sometimes, maybe often, especially with our elderly mothers or mothers-in-law (if we are lucky enough to have family elders), we get a little frazzled and cross and want to scream; but we still wait in a doctor's office, or drive to a hair appointment, or play cards all afternoon, or drink sweetened tea when we prefer it plain, and we may think bad thoughts once in a while. And that is _okay_. Better than okay. The wisest women both here and gone have known--and demonstrated-- that our actions speak loudest when it comes to love. They also know we will never regret spending this time, regardless of how we feel about it sometimes, because mothers were once daughters and that's the way life is meant to roll. (p. 140-141)”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“What both halves of my heart-mind can agree on is that I am the one who chooses how to respond to the people and situations I encounter everyday.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“Now I know better. The secret to aging more cheerfully is to play like a child.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“When our mothers die, we are on our own; there is no one to call for help, no one to blame, and no one left who has a copy of your grandmother’s recipe for the traditional Christmas coffee cake, which you can’t find anywhere. Her”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“You don’t have to sing in a choir to see that a group of committed people who care about something that makes life a little brighter, and work hard at it, can accomplish more together than alone, but it helps.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“Campfires and birthday candles don't burn forever.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“Who doesn’t cry when they hear, “Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“True love is above all reliable. So we do the best we can to follow through,”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“SLY STONE SANG IT LOUD. We are family. Our hearts are every bit as malleable as stardust turned to gold. Loving one another polishes them.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“If the snow keeps me home from an important meeting, I'll take a walk in it. Shovel my neighbor's stoop. Then build a snowman at the end of the driveway. When was the last time I did that?”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer