Surviving Difficult Times: Advice from Books

by Rochelle Melander

For more years than I can count, I’ve been marking pages of the books I read, copying out quotes in a journal, and reflecting on them. This has been quite a year, and I’ve depended on my books more than ever. Here are a few of my favorites from this year’s stack of books.

On Writing

For me, writing is an act of reciprocity with the world; it is what I can give back in return for everything that has been given to me.

—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

On Callings

We would figure out what we liked, what we didn’t, what was fun, and what was painful through trial and error. If we kept shrinking back, worrying about how others saw us, trying not to show the uncool parts of ourselves or avoid being laughed at, we would probably lose sight of what those things even meant.

            That was why, from here on out, step by step, I was going to decide who I was.

—Michiko Aoyama, The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park

On Waiting

“I’m used to it now, the waiting. An incomplete, unhurried emergence of understanding, sitting with questions that are sometimes never answered.”
― Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional

On Trying Again

“Whether it’s pottery or life, it takes more than one attempt for them to come out right. And all that effort makes the end product more valuable, too.”
― Yeon Somin, The Healing Season of Pottery

On Choosing Hope

“All you can do, Rosemary – all any of us can do – is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”

—Becky Chambers, A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

On Books

“Books won’t solve my problems, Harriet.”
“No, but they give your problems perspective. They allow your problems to breathe.”

—Monica Woods, How to read a Book

On Libraries

“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen.”

—Susan Orlean, The Library Book

On Facing Fear

There are always things out there that will try to scare us, try to hurt us. Sometimes the darkness is real. It can be a message of what to stay clear of, what to avoid. Sometimes the darkness is our own fears. The best thing we can do is face our fears head on. You just have to keep your mind and heart on what you’re here for.

—Marcie R Rendon, Sinister Graves

On Exploring

“You don’t have to be in the jungle to be an explorer. Every human on this earth is an explorer. Exploring is nothing more than the paying of attention, write large. Attention. That’s what the world asks of you. If you pay ferocious attention to the world, you will be as safe as it is possible to be.”

—Katherine Rundell, The Explorer