It. Goes. So. Fast. Quotes

“But my most fervent mother’s wish is just … that he be happy. That he find real friends, and a partner who is good to him and makes him laugh. That he live his life in a way that leaves others around him a little happier too. In the end, what else is there? What otherwise is the point of it all?”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“You learn not to dignify the behavior with a response.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“It has to do with how two competing ideas can coexist. How two contradictory thoughts can both be true. Do I regret going? No. Do I regret leaving my babies? Yes.
I speak from personal experience when I say that the following holds true, whether children are newborns or nearly grown: it is possible both to hate leaving them, and to be terribly glad that you went.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“Perhaps the secret to a happy life isn’t about making the right choices so much as learning to live with the ones we do make.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“What we have in common is the knowledge that there will never be enough hours in the day or enough years on this earth to do everything we came here to do.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“when in doubt, just say what you know and how you know it.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“I can’t think of another relationship in one’s life where you actively root for the other person to outgrow you. Where the whole goal is for them to surpass you, to separate. That’s the fundamental tension of parent and child. You can’t wait for them to stop being so needy every second, and then they stop needing you every second, and it feels like a stake to the heart.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“I always think of a fresco in one of my favorite churches in Florence. Masaccio painted it around 1424 on the wall of Santa Maria Novella. It shows the Holy Trinity: Christ on the cross, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Beneath them lies a skeleton in a tomb, and an inscription, in Italian: "What you are I once was; What I am, you will be." A reminder that our time is short. A reminder that it goes so fast.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“Treasure this. Treasure the way their eyes light up when you walk into a room. Treasure even the mornings they cry for you, the ones when you have to unwind and tear their arms from around your neck as you leave. Never again, I would tell my younger self—never again will someone need and love you with the intensity that James and Alexander do, right now.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“In his book "Being Mortal", the surgeon Atul Gawande accurately describes the joy that flows from being good at your work. 'You become a doctor for what you imagine to be the satisfaction of the work, and that turns out to be the satisfaction of competence,' Dr. Gawande writes. 'It is a deep satisfaction very much like the one that a carpenter experiences in restoring a fragile antique chest...It comes partly from being helpful to others. But it also comes from being technically skilled and able to solve difficult, intricate problems. Your competence gives you a secure sense of identity.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“Personally, it’s taken me a while to see that the reward for good work is not that you get to be done. It’s that people notice and ask you to do more of it. The mountain keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“George Saunders captures it beautifully in his book Congratulations, By the Way.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“stronger. You blink and the finish line is in sight. Young parents, listen to me: It. Goes. So. Fast.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“It is both a relief and a little disconcerting to realize that your kids are going to turn out the way they turn out, almost no matter what you do.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“Why should things be easy when they can be difficult?”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“But my most fervent mother’s wish is just … that he be happy.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“Personally, it’s taken me a while to see that the reward for good work is not that you get to be done. It’s that people notice and ask you to do more of it.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“So much of life—so much—depends on what we choose to see.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better. —ANNE LAMOTT”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs

“But when I look back over my life to date, I can think of occasions when I regret not having stood up to someone or something. I can think of none I regret that went the other way, not a single time I was sorry to have found my voice and used it.”
― Mary Louise Kelly, It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs