Permission Granted Quotes

“a certain irritability comes up, a certain inability to tolerate things that don’t usually bother you. The truth is, those things always bothered you; you just hadn’t noticed. You were too busy burying that truth, too busy hiding it from yourself. It’s only when you’re broken and crumbled and cracked down the middle that you have no choice but to notice all those things.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“Maybe the simplest, truest version of ourselves is that one. Maybe the real work of our lives is to strip away the extra stuff we’ve added on top, so we can know who we really are. Maybe the work is to stop seeing our true selves as problems to be fixed.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“She did say we were both/and: broken and beloved, imperfect and whole, seen and unseen, held and falling.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“That’s true of everyone. You know this when you hold a tiny baby in your giant arms. That baby is worthy of love. That baby person matters, not because of anything they have done, but because of who they are—and who they are is love wrapped up in flesh. That doesn’t become less true as you get older. That’s who the woman sitting next to me still was, and is. She is love, and she matters.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“As if that feeling of brokenness might be like a burned-out light bulb: it needs attention, but it doesn’t mean the whole house needs to be torn down.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“Brokenness does not have to lead to shame,” as if she thought your mess might not be your permanent identity. As if you could build something more solid to live out of.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“Both/and, I wrote down in the little notebook I carry everywhere. I like the both/and, because I am all the things: mother and writer, anxious and hopeful, depressed and optimistic, a mess and wearing mascara, hiding and showing up. I was the worst, and I hoped that I wasn’t.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“And we are also,” Jessica said, “on a journey toward growth.” We are loved right where we are, and we are invited into more wholeness.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“You are okay—you are good and beautiful—right now,”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

“I’ve always found God to be a source of comfort, but I haven’t always found churches to be quite as welcoming. (And if church is hard for me, as a straight, white, married, middle-class woman, I can’t imagine it’s a whole lot easier for anyone else.) At its best, church is a beautiful thing—a community of people who gather to remind each other of who they are, to learn and grow together, and to practice being a loving presence in the world. So I kept trying.”
― Melissa Camara Wilkins, Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest