117 Quotes by Kelly Corrigan

The only mothers who never embarrass, harass, dismiss, discount, deceive, distort, neglect, baffle, appall, inhibit, incite, insult, or age poorly are dead mothers, perfectly contained in photographs, pressed into two dimensions like a golden autumn leaf.

We’re never ready for the things that happen. When the big stuff happens, we’re always looking in the other direction.

Even when all the paperwork-a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns-clearly indicates you’re an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you’re still somebody’s daughter.

Do your work, Kelly. Then lean back. Rest from the striving to reduce. Like the padre said, life is a mystery to be lived. Live your mystery.

Reality always comes dressed in a point of view, try as we might to lay it bare.

Immediate, often unsolicited, sometimes undeserved forgiveness – that is what turns the wheel of family life.

Old people and their hyper-calibrated radar. They can’t hear a word, and they can barely get out of their chairs, but they’ve got six or seven other senses, scanning, collecting, decoding.

There’s no greater gift than to help a child see their enoughness, their might.

I realized that making people feel irreplaceable was his gift.