Bushwhacking Quotes

“The challenge has come in sticking with it, in persevering long enough to see myself get better and braver. 164

You must attend to what needs attending, mind your own peace of mind, preserve you own joyfulness because no one else is going to do it for you. 165”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

“I promise you this: When you push yourself to new heights, both in writing and in life, you will become a better writer. The key is to find the places that scare you, then lean into the discomfort.”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

“Truth be told, I am much more afraid of not going into the woods than I am of being mauled or eaten there. I am afraid of becoming complacent, of living a life that does not inspire courage, a life that does not feed my soul. And so it has been with my writing life.”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

“So hold the cucumber sandwiches and the Waldorf chicken salad, and drop me off at a trailhead with a dog or two or three or four and let me wander in the wilderness until I begin to hear the story humming beneath the surface of my life, until the quiet settles in my bones and soothes my clumsy, anxious spirit, until, finally, the words rise from somewhere deep within the forest and find me there, a story waiting to be told.”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

“In the woods, as in writing, the place where you hide from the world is the place where you most often find yourself. The woods, for me, are where writing begins.”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out

“At committee meetings and fancy wedding receptions and formal luncheons and teas, I am awkward, put off by niceties, bored by formalities and polite conversation. But in the woods, as in the writing life, there is no one correct method of going about things, no agenda, no one way to sit or one proper utensil to use.”
― Jennifer McGaha, Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out