The Wanderess and her Suitcase Quotes

“I knew that I never wanted to stop walking; I wanted to see places and somehow understand what this thing called earth was all about. There were so many people out there, and I had to meet them. I felt safe and at home on the roads to nowhere, I felt welcome and protected in the unknown land and I fell in love with the people around me. They were so very similar and still so very different from me. I felt their souls connect to my own, and I knew no greater feeling could ever be given to me.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Over the years, I had come to understand many things, but one was the clearest of all: you can survive anything if only you have one true friend.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“The feeling of homelessness suddenly turned into something else. I called it freedom to wander.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“One thing was certain: life was a maze. There was nothing “straight forward”. Everything that pretended to be straight somehow ended in unexpected twists and turns, only to leave you full of wonder at how you possibly made it through to the end. You couldn’t just pack a pair of hedge trimmers to take a shortcut and hoodwink fate. No, you had to walk the path of life given to you with all its detours. The goal wasn’t to avoid getting lost sometimes—in fact, that was most unlikely given that you were in a maze. The trick was simply to keep walking. To enjoy the process of getting lost and finding yourself again, different and more grown-up than when you had left. One step after another, that was all that it took. One step after another, so simple and so utterly enough.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“We can’t conquer the things that are bigger than ourselves; we can’t even escape them. It is the wind that decides our destination, far more than ourselves. All that we are able to do is pack our bags, hop on board, raise the anchor and set the sails. We can only trust the wind and go on and on.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“There was a memory of how beautiful, how wild, how colourful, how adventurous and how wonderful this big world was.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“We were willing to explore and be surprised. Willing to trust that there was beauty out there and love and joy. Ready to have our hearts touched and our souls hugged.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“No darkness could stay forever; such was life. All the great stories were filled with struggle, and there would always be a way to conquer the shadows, even if all seemed lost as it did now. There would always be a new dawn and a new day; the sun would rise, and so would I if I didn’t give up on myself. It was for the bright days, the ones filled with love and laughter, that I had to keep fighting. It was for the people and the places and the things I loved that I stayed alive. Nothing would ever be the same after I had been hurt so deeply, but to still have the courage to love—that was real bravery, the bravery people talked about in stories and tales.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“She had had many men before her father’s death and after they’d found each other. As if the pain would go away when enough souls showed her love—made love to her or made her forget her name for a night.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Life became colourful and wild as Ada danced through night and day. She danced so fiercely that she forgot what day it was or even her own name.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“I left something behind in the heat and the vastness of this continent, and I was reborn as something I knew I had always been: a wanderess.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“She needed no drugs as she, like all the others, was high on him.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Abruptly, I realized the familiar look in Max’s round blue eyes, which had been so compelling, was sadness.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Without knowing it, we became soul sisters”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“I felt his gaze upon my back as his hands moved down ever further, vanishing between my legs and claiming land that wasn't his to take.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“We lay in each other's arms, rescuing each other from drowning. Each of us needed the other more than we were able to say. On this very odd night, the world could have gone down, and we would have been okay.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Scarred, but strong, we were two warriors who were ready to do the hardest thing of all, to return to life.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“I suddenly felt the weight lift off my shoulders as the whole world seemed wild and wonderful. I closed my eyes, holding my breath, trying to hold onto the moment. I wanted to forget that it wouldn't last forever. I wanted to forget that I couldn't be the wind. I wanted to forget that when the car stopped, I would be me and he would be him again.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“In a way, Nellie Smith’s hot chocolate changed everything”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“There had not been an attachment to it; it wasn't supposed to change me, it wasn't supposed to make me do anything and, for the first time, it had stopped feeling odd or as though I didn't deserve it, I had learnt to let myself be loved.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“For this brief moment, he was the anchor and I was the boat caught in my sea of doubt and despair until we were back in his house where everything seemed to be so ordinary.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“I knew then that this hug had been the greatest teacher of my young life.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase

“Nothing would ever be the same after I had been hurt so deeply, but to still have the courage to love—that was real bravery, the bravery people talked about in stories and tales.”
― Meara O'Hara, The Wanderess and her Suitcase