A Life in Light Quotes

“Everything is process and in process. We can hold on to nothing.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“Over time, the library became my church and reading became my way of understanding the world. I built myself from books.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“We could plan for nothing. The word for 2020 was surrender. Surrender your plans, your wishes, and your sense”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“What had saved me was stopping the struggle.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“I didn’t feel grief as much as I felt dead. When I experience loss, the lights go out.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“Reading offered me hope, soothed me in difficult moments, and gave me a sense of the immense complexity of the human spirit. There are all kinds of light in the world—from the sky, during moments of bliss and awe, and from the lemony circles on the tables of the Beaver City library.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“It also helps to be a developmental psychologist, since I know I am in a life stage when my growth involves relinquishing control.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“Margaret Mead wrote that “growing up means getting outside oneself and cherishing the life of the world.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“I was a fleck of dust in an enormous universe, fortunate to even exist. Our lives are as fragile as the smallest falling star that flashes across the dome of night. We blaze for a moment and then we are gone.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“Writing brought a new kind of light into my life. It was the light of living life twice, once in real time and once in reflective time. It allowed me to grow into my true self. Writing gave me an intellectually challenging life in which I could still live quietly in my own home.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“I would imagine myself in whatever spot my finger had landed. I tried to see the trees, sky, birds, and water. I imagined the children’s clothing and toys, and the foods. I listened for the tinkle of bells or the calls of grown-ups at work. I yearned to visit every part of the world when I grew up.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“Reading lit a path into my future. I was constructing an identity beyond the bounds of family.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence

“I still had my identity as the daughter of a doctor in an odd family, but I added a new identity. I was a girl with a friend.”
― Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence