I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet Quotes

“For a long time, I wanted people to change--to be less cruel, to be decent, to be fair, to tell the truth. That would be lovely. But I'm not waiting around for that. I'm deciding who gets to enter my spaces, my heart, my mind, my living room, because I'm responsible for those places, no one else. I'm responsible to protect my mind, my heart, my family.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“believe in seeking out beauty absolutely every chance we get, as an act of prayer, as an act of worship, as an act of resistance. I believe in going out of our way if it means getting to see the water or the mountains or the sky streaked with colors. I believe in attending the sunset the way some people buy fancy theater tickets.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“If you think you’re too old to make a difference, you’re not. If you think you don’t have enough time left to build something really beautiful, you’re wrong. If you think your legacy-leaving window has closed, it hasn’t.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“What does it mean to show up as deeply myself right now? What does it mean to give my whole self to my community instead of only the parts that feel acceptable and easy?”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Another way to look at it: self-compassion and self-care are acts of obedience, stewarding well what God has given to us, loving what he loves.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“I’m learning to choose myself instead of giving the best of myself to people and relationships and institutions. Loyalty to myself. Belonging to myself. Looking for joy just for myself. I need a disproportionate amount of care right now, and the one who is responsible for that care is me. I can’t assume that someone else will do it; it’s my responsibility to create a rhythm for my life that nurtures me, that brings me joy, that allows me to flourish, even given the weight of things I’m carrying.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“I still believe in God—in his goodness especially. In the centrality of forgiveness, confession, prayer. I believe he is present in our lives, that he offers comfort and wisdom, that the way of Christ is the best possible way to live. I still believe in religion as a meaningful way to gather and organize our lives, although I don’t believe it’s a stand-in for emotional health or self-awareness or character, and I don’t believe a devoutly religious person is necessarily any of those other important things.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“If anger is active and powerful, grief and sadness are tender, vulnerable. Anger puts us back in the power position, while grief lays us bare, like letting ourselves lie down on a sidewalk, knowing we could get stepped on, crushed. Grief gives up the pretense of control.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“wise friend of mine says that true spiritual maturity is nothing more—and nothing less—than consenting to reality. Hello to here—not what you wanted or longed for or lost, not what you hope for or imagine. Reality. This here. This now.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Hospitality is holding space for another person to be seen and heard and loved. It’s giving someone a place to be when they’d otherwise be alone. It’s, as my friend Sibyl says, when someone leaves your home feeling better about themselves, not better about you.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“And I know now that I can trust myself, that I can belong to myself, that belonging to something larger than myself is lovely but isn’t for every season. It’s a little lonelier out here, a little rockier. I’m learning to make myself a home in the wilderness, in the unbelonging itself.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Self-compassion is letting yourself off the hook, letting yourself be human and flawed and also amazing. It’s giving yourself credit for showing up instead of beating yourself up for taking so long to get there.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Life will break your heart in a thousand ways, but there's still music and there's still dancing. There's still coffee and toast. There's still kissing and there are still late dinners on busy sidewalks. Twinkly lights, novels, old movies, soft blankets, black-and-white photos, French braids, salty hot french fries dipped in mayo and ketchup. We're still falling in love. We're still learning to forgive. We're still watching our kids learn and grow and stretch into their next selves. We're still watching the sun as it rises and as it sets, still watching the moon wax and wane. We're still trying, still hoping, still getting it wrong and getting it right.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“It’s easy, of course, to buzz the beach and find the sparkle on good days—days when the sun is shining and your heart is light. When it gets really dark, though, that’s when you start to understand that it’s a discipline, and you need it in the dark so much more desperately than you need it in the light. Joy and celebration are practices for the long haul.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Resilience is, simply put, getting back up. It’s getting back up, not just after the first fall, but the ninth and tenth and seven hundredth. Resilience is feeling your exhaustion and choosing to move forward anyway. Resilience is watching your lovingly made plans fall to dust in your hands, grieving what’s lost and making (yet another) plan. It’s being willing to lay down your expectations for what you thought your life would be, what this year would be, what this holiday season would be, and being willing to imagine another way.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“It reminds me of the improv rule, "yes, and..." We want "yes, period," right? We're okay with moving forward, as long as we get to control what's coming next. But that's not how it works. No in improv, not on the water, not in life. Yes, and. Yes, and change course. Yes, into the unknown. Yes, even though everything's different. Still yes.[...]

Is the world still beautiful? Still yes.
Do our stories still matter? Still yes.
Am I still hopeful? Still yes.
Will I trust people?
Will I trust God?
Will I trust myself?
Still yes, yes, yes.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“I know now that I'm strong enough, brave enough, whole enough to hold it all - how it was and how it ended. What I got wrong, what I made right, who I was, who I wasn't, who I've yet to become. What I miss, what was lost, what's still unfolding. I'm not perfect or shiny or bulletproof. The story of my life is not a fairy tale. It's not a horror story. It's just a story like most stories - dark and light and beautiful and terrible and still being written.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“your exhaustion and choosing to move forward anyway. Resilience is watching your lovingly made plans fall to dust in your hands, grieving what’s lost and making (yet another) plan. It’s being willing to lay down your expectations for what you thought your life would be, what this year would be, what this holiday season would be, and being”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Maybe walking is the speed of the soul, the exact right pacing for our bodies and spirits and hearts and minds to reconnect, to dwell together again.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“I’ve been seeing worried parents for decades now. Parents worry, and kids are mostly fine. Just do this one thing: Be enchanted by whatever’s currently enchanting your child.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“We’re responsible to help create a world that values questions more than answers, that celebrates learning and not just knowing, that sees failure as a part of the process of success.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“you can love someone and learn from them and be deeply grateful for them for a season, and then bless their future.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“Easter is sort of a gruesome holiday—you don’t get to the eggs or the pastels or the new life without confronting a violent death and a silent and desolate Saturday.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“So keep gathering, keep it weird, embrace the movable feast, and practice brave, awkward, difficult hospitality as a way of fighting against isolation and othering, a way of healing what’s been broken and loving our world and our own selves back to life.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“This is the question: What do we keep? What do we let go because it makes us lighter, because it opens up space, because it keeps us right in the moment and location of where we are, not yearning for a world that doesn’t exist anymore, a self that doesn’t exist anymore? And what do we keep because it’s part of the story of who we are, not just in this moment, but over years and decades, our essential selves?”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“This is the process of a lifelong faith. Born again. Again. Again. You won’t have to unravel and rebuild in such a comprehensive way every time—it seems to me that most people have several faith disruptions over a lifetime. But there are smaller quakes along the way too, and what a gift we would give ourselves if we could normalize this process. The Christian tradition is inherently in motion—a people walking through the wilderness, a Savior walking the road to Calvary, an ongoing journey—life, death, rebirth.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“choose wisely whose voices you’re allowing into your life, because I know from experience that after a while, they become the voices not just on your screen but in your head.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“faith is something you tend to, something you nurture, something you dismantle and rebuild, something you wrestle with because it matters that much to you.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“We only heal by investing in the difficult and ugly work, even if it isn’t pretty, even if it looks like a mess for a while.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

“One of my goals is to be a person who is easily delighted, who can find great cause for celebration in a fig or a familiar face. If you need fireworks and perfection in order to crack a smile, you’re going to be disappointed over and over when life fails to be spectacular on command. I want to live with an extremely low bar for delight. It takes almost nothing at all—a good song, a ripe piece of fruit, a perfectly packed tote.”
― Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working