Why ‘Brave Enough’ by Cheryl Strayed is the Perfect Coffee Table Book
I love quotes, you can call me a bonafide quote collector.
I always have a pocket of quotes handy to dole out to my best friends at any moment; to get me through a hard time; or when I need the reminder to simply keep going. They’re always useful; from the simple to the complex; from the profound to the slightly outlandish.
A well-written passage, or quote, always seems to remind me that this too shall pass; whether good or bad. It reminds me that I must stay in the moment.
Cheryl Strayed apparently feels the same way. I remember when I recently heard that she was releasing a new book; I was ecstatic. I honestly didn’t even bother to read the synopsis. I simply clicked the pre-order button. Only after the fact did I read that Brave Enough was a collection of over a hundred of Strayed’s quotes and thoughts from her previous works and speeches.
Small, compact and in my favorite color green; Brave Enough is the perfect pick me up and a great book to keep on your coffee table.
Strayed calls quotes” mini-instruction manuals for the soul” and I could not agree more. Here are some of my favorites from the book:
On Solitude
Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.
On doing the work
Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life.
Do the work.
Keep the faith.
Be true blue.
You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.
On Measuring Success
It’s folly to measure your success in money or fame. Success is measured only by your ability to say yes to these two questions:
Did I do the work I needed to do?
Did I give it everything I had?
On being Brave Enough
You don’t have to be young. You don’t have to be thin. You don’t have to be”hot” in a way that some dumbfuckedly narrow mindset has construed that word. You don’t have to have taut flesh or a tight ass or an eternally upright set of tits. You have to find a way to inhabit your body while enacting your deepest desires. You have to be brave enough to build the intimacy you deserve. You have to take off all of your clothes and say, I’m right here.
There were so many gems in this book and it would be so easy to get carried away and list about ten more of my favorites.
I love this book so much, it is the perfect pick-me-up that provides the kind words and the hard kick in the ass we all need at times. It is much needed and I highly recommend you all to read Brave Enough; you won’t regret it.
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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