A beloved daughter who now spent holidays alone.

— Cheryl Strayed

. And now it was official: I loved REI more than I loved the people behind Snapple lemonade.

— Cheryl Strayed

And now it was official: I loved REI more than I loved the people behind Snapple lemonade.

— Cheryl Strayed

As close as we'd been when we were together, we were closer in our unraveling, telling each other everything at last, words that seemed to us might have never been spoken between two human beings before, so deep we went, saying everything that was beautiful and ugly and true.

— Cheryl Strayed

Be fearless enough to let love transform you.

— Cheryl Strayed

But as you are surely aware, forgiveness doesn't mean you let the forgiven stomp all over you once again. Forgiveness means you've found a way forward that acknowledges harm done and hurt caused without letting either your anger or your pain rule your life or define your relationship with the one who did you wrong.

— Cheryl Strayed

But compassion isn't about solutions. It's about giving all the love that you've got.

— Cheryl Strayed

But now that she was dying, I knew everything. My mother was in me already. Not just the parts of her that I knew, but the parts of her that had come before me too.

— Cheryl Strayed

But on that night as I gazed out over the darkening land fifty-some nights out on the PCT, it occurred to me that I didn't have to be amazed by him anymore. There were so many other amazing things in this world. They opened up inside of me like a river. Like I didn't know I could take a breath and then I breathed. I laughed with the joy of it, and the next moment I was crying my first tears on the PCT. I cried and I cried and I cried. Furthermore, I wasn't crying because I was happy. Furthermore, I wasn't crying because I was sad. Furthermore, I wasn't crying because of my mother or my father or Paul. Furthermore, I was crying because I was full. Of those fifty-some hard days on the trail and of the 9,760 days that had come before them too. I was entering. I was leaving. California streamed behind me like a long silk veil. I didn't feel like a big fat idiot anymore. And I didn't feel like a hard-ass motherfucking Amazonian queen. I felt fierce and humble and gathered inside, like I was safe in this world too.

— Cheryl Strayed

...but thinking about it didn't do a thing. Thinking about it was a long dive into a bucket of shit that didn't have a bottom.

— Cheryl Strayed