21 Quotes by Glynnis MacNicol

"Maybe this was normal; we spend our childhoods with full faith in our parents’ decision-making, and our adulthoods second-guessing their every move, certain we know better."

"Not every encounter needed to be the first step in a permanent decision."

"I’ve noticed it’s almost always people who are living the exact opposite lives than you, and facing none of the risks, who are most encouraging."

"It was hard work to root yourself so deeply in life that you could still love people and rely on them, knowing at any point they could make decisions that would leave you scrambling to find solid ground again."

"This is why people have babies... because it’s exhausting not to know what you’re supposed to do next. A baby is basically a nonnegotiable map for the next two decades."

"Nora Ephron once wrote that she’d ceased being scared of flying when her husband pointed out it was narcissistic to think her plane was the one that was going to go down."

"I knew better than to allow myself to be thrown into a mental temper tantrum over Instagram. It just took effort. I had to lean on my knowledge of the real lives of the people in the photos, which were just as complicated and flawed as my own."

"What I wanted was for there to exist some way for me to say “I’m happy and sad and not jealous” all at the same time, and also “This is a loss and is still beautiful.” Maybe that was the wedding toast. “We are really the ones giving you away. And it’s hard. And I will miss our life. And I am still so happy for your happiness. And so proud of you."

"I’ve realized that you can never be your best self without extra bandwidth to think clearly, give to others, and appreciate sunrises and sunsets."

"It was the singular blessing of an otherwise relentlessly cruel disease, but all I was able to think of as I watched the gleeful look on her face was what a waste of time all the good behavior had been. Her whole life stretched behind me now, and from this vantage point it seemed so short. And these concerns about other people’s opinions, which had dominated my mother’s thinking, seemed so fruitless and unworthy. I was overwhelmed with sadness for her."