Cheryl Strayed is the author of Wild.
If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it. It’s a book about changing the story that you tell yourself. It’s about becoming the person you want to be, instead of remaining the person you’ve let yourself become.
At one point in the book, Cheryl starts using heroin. She loves it and wants more because it is the first thing that has worked for her to ease the pain. Realizing the danger, she bows out before the drug takes over her life.
Cheryl decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and she decides to hike it alone. She was struggling to make sense of her life because it just wasn’t working for her.
The story reminds me a bit of when my daughter went off to a Wilderness Camp in Loa, Utah. She also had a backpack on her back. I tried to pick it up at the end of her trip, and couldn’t lift it. She hiked for 5 weeks, no shower and no amenities. She was discovering and understanding why she had allowed herself to become addicted to crystal meth.
She was not alone. There were plenty of other people around her, except for a 24 period of time. It was her right of passage at the end of the experience to spend 24 hours alone in the wilderness. All went well, except when she woke up, there was a cow standing in the middle of her campsite. No harm was done.
Getting clarity by immersing ourselves with nature can inspire and empower us to find our way home.
We tell ourselves a story from when we were young. We keep replaying that story over and over. We believe that is who we are. When you question your beliefs, you may come to find that there is another way, a better way to live your life.
Naturally, after losing her mother, a broken marriage and the round with heroin, Cheryl was ready to give up on herself, but she decided to try something bold, something courageous, something new. The purpose was to change her life and become strong.
Here are the quotes that Oprah shared. You’ll see their broader meaning.
1. I’d finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in.
2. I could feel myself disintegrating inside myself like a past-bloom flower…Every time I moved a muscle, another petal of me blew away.
3. There’s no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what? What destroys what? What causes what to flourish or die or take another course?
4. He hadn’t loved me well in the end, but he’d love well when it mattered.
5. I’d done it. It seemed like such a small thing and such a tremendous thing at once, like a secret I’d always tell myself, though I didn’t know the meaning of it just yet.
6. It was my life — like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be.
7. It seemed like my trip had just begun like I was only now digging into whatever it was I was out here to do. Like I was still the women with the hole in her heart, but the hole had gotten ever so infinitesimally smaller.
8. The father’s job is to teach his children how to be warriors, to give them the confidence to get on the horse and ride into battle when it’s necessary to do so. If you don’t get that from your father, you have to teach yourself.
9. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.
10. The universe, I’d learned, was never, ever kidding.
11. There were so many other amazing things in this world. They opened up inside of me like a river.
12. But I wasn’t out here to keep myself from having to say I am not afraid. I’d come, I realized to stare that fear down, to start everything down, really…I couldn’t do that while tagging along with someone else.
13. Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something.
14. Perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of what I’d lost, of what had been taken from me….
15. Of all the things I’d been skeptical about, I didn’t feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.
16. I only felt that in spite of all the things I’d done wrong, in getting myself here, I’d done right.
17. I’d walk and think about my entire life. I’d find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous.
18. I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it. That I could bear the unbearable.
19. That my complicated life could be made so simple was astounding.
20. Alone had always felt like an actual place to me as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.
21. Alone wasn’t a room anymore, but the whole wide world, and now I was alone in that world, occupying it in a way I never had before.
22. It felt something growing in me that was strong and real.
23. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave.
24. I had to change…Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be..
25. I considered my option. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go.
Picture credit Environment Blog.
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Hi Cathy. #24 “I had to change…Not into a different person, but back to the person I used to be…” Reminded me of what the great abstract painter Willem De Koonig said, “I have to change to remain the same..” To me that means we must learn to come back to out Authentic Nature. We need not add anything new, but must learn how to come home again. Come back to the Authentic Self that is a rich and majestic child of infinite intelligence, marvelously made, destined to win and worthy of all that is good and beautiful.
So beautifully said, Rob. You have such wisdom to share. I do believe we can lose ourselves if we don’t pay attention. By listening to our inner voice and by stopping and taking a deep breath, we can begin to find ourselves again. Thanks for your insightful comment. Take care.
The Universe isn’t kidding. Now that made me laugh out loud for the number of times I thought I was being funny only everything was taken seriously and my ‘cute’ sense of humour brought about….well things no-one would ask for on purpose. 🙂
What a great writer she is. I’m so grateful you shared this Cathy. Another one to add to my collection.
Elle
xoxo
I liked that one as well, Elle. But what truer words can there be. The universe is an energizing force for us, but makes us also aware also of the stark realities of life. We want to feel relaxed, safe and at peace with the world. Her words lead us in that direction. Thanks as always! Take care.
Like Elle, I was struck by the universe is never kidding. That was sobering, I guess literally as well as figuratively. What an inspiring post. And also about a part of the country I love as a bonus.
Hi Galen,
Yes, that quote struck me as well. She is a beautiful writer and I love these quotes as well. If you haven’t read the book, you would enjoy it. Very different and well written. Thanks for stopping by. Take care.
Hi Cathy,
A story of the human spirit prevailing…Life’s journey takes many twists & turns. Thankyou
be good to yourself
David
So true David. Thank for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Read it, loved it, want to hike the trail! You in? xo
Yes, let’s do it!! Take care!
Beautiful and inspiring quotes! This really struck a chord with me “I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it. That I could bear the unbearable.”
Thanks for sharing Cathy!
Hi Carolyn,
I love that one as well. Sometimes we easily forget how strong we really are. Take care.
Cathy…. What an extraordinary story she has and what a gifted writer she is.
So many quotes that I identified with. But this one pulled at my heartstrings.
” I could feel myself disintegrating inside myself like a past-bloom flower…Every time I moved a muscle, another petal of me blew away.”
I just finished reading the profile of Bruce Springsteen in The New Yorker….www.newyorker.com
An article worth reading. #8 in the list could have been written with him in mind. Fran
Hi Fran,
She worded that quote so well. It is beautiful and so many I’m sure can relate to it. The Bruce Springsteen article sounds interesting, I will check that out. Take care.
Cathy– I had not heard of this book and I am glad you brought it to our attention. I really like the quotes–very powerful!
Hi Meryl,
Great – glad you enjoyed the quotes. You will like the book as well. It ‘s a good one! Take care.
I have been seeing her book everywhere and my sister had sent me the link to her event in SF this week.
I like how you weaved the story of your daughter in the post and some of the parallels with Cheryl’s story.
Hi Wendy,
It’s a wonderful book. I think you would like it, as it’s the story of a women’s courage to change herself. It’s fun to see how successful she has become. Thanks for the tip for the San Francisco event.
Some thought-provoking quotes here, for sure. This definitely sounds like a book I need to put on my reading list. Thank you so much for sharing it.
I loved this quote: “I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it. That I could bear the unbearable.” Learning to bear the unbearable–and now I really need to go find it in the context of her story and see how learning that lesson changed her life.
Hi Marie,
Someone had recommended the book to me right before a trip to Portland which was a good time for me to read it. It’s has a unique theme, and shows the strength a women can have when she needs to. One more book to help us realize all the possibilities.
Wooo – great quotes that really tell Cheryl’s story. And what a story. I’ll have to find her book. You and your daughter have quite a story, too. Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Betsy,
I imagine you enjoy some hiking from time to time in Colorado, so I would suspect that you could definitely relate to this book. It’s amazing to think that Cheryl Strayed made the decision to hike the trail alone. It takes courage and perseverance, and she shows that she had both. Take care.
Hi Karla,
That is wonderful that your grandmothers has such clarity and wisdom. I had not heard that one before in those words, but an inspiring quote, I believe and one for all of us. Thanks for stopping by. Take care.
Inspiring post Cathy!
I’ve found this to be true – “Getting clarity by immersing ourselves with nature can inspire and empower us to find our way home.” Reminds me of Deepak Chopra’s wisdom in his 7 Spiritual Laws of Success one of which is connecting with nature.
It’s almost like magic.
Hi Aileen,
Good comparison! I think nature does hold the magic of bringing us back to ourselves. Take care.
wow that sound awesome.. I love the I didn’t need to change into someone different but who I used to be!
I really like this and need to read it. I think that you can use it to find yourself in more ways than one! Beautiful and inspiring quotes! My complex life could be made so simple… I love it when people see this!
Loved this post! Your quotes are inspiring. For me, I’m going to pay attention to the Universe and its lack of kidding 😉
I will have to look at getting this book 🙂 I love quotes and this one is my favorite from this list 🙂 “But I wasn’t out her to keep myself from having to say I am not afraid. I’d come, I realized to stare that fear down, to start everything down, really…I couldn’t do that while tagging along with someone else.”
The interesting thing about our “stories” is that, even when we think we’ve revisited them to understand any lessons or leftover traces (before letting them go), they periodically pop up to see if they can trip us up. Almost mischievously. Just Friday, I found myself visiting teenage memories and emotions I never remember looking at as an adult. The glimpse was revealing. But the key is to say “thanks” and get back on our healthier path!
This is terrific, Cathy! So many great things here — loved #18, “I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back.” And this is so true for me, “Getting clarity by immersing ourselves with nature can inspire and empower us to find our way home.” Thanks for this post — loved reading it.
Hi Lisa,
Being a hiker, I think you could really relate to this book as well. I agree that getting out in nature can help us with so many issues. Take care.