Michelle Obama on love, loss, and perseverance from her new memoir ‘The Light We Carry’
In 2018, Michelle Obama became a #1 best-selling author with “Becoming,” and now she’s back in bookstores with her new memoir, “The Light We Carry.”
The former first lady describes “The Light We Carry” as “a collection of practices and perspectives that I draw on when I need to stay balanced and confident, especially in times of anxiety and stress.”
In the introduction, Obama adds that the book will guide readers through the tools, attitudes, and beliefs she learned on her “ongoing journey to becoming.”
“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” Obama says in one of the many impactful chapters of the book.
5 quotes from Michelle Obama on love, loss and perseverance
On being different
There’s nothing easy about finding your way through a world loaded with obstacles that others can’t or don’t see.Michelle Obama
On the COVID-19 pandemic and loss
It may be a while before we find our footing again. The losses will reverberate for years to come. We will get shaken and shaken again. The world will remain both beautiful and broken.
The uncertainties aren’t going away. But when equilibrium isn’t possible, we are challenged to evolve.
On finding a partner
Real and lasting love, I think, happens mostly in the realm of in-between. Together, you are answering the question: Who are we and who do we want to be?Michelle Obama
On finding stillness
In knitting, when you create the first stitch of a new project, you cast on. When an item is finished, you bind it off. Both of these actions, I’ve found are incredibly satisfying — the bookends of something manageable and finite. They give me a sense of completion in a world that will always and forever feel chaotic and incomplete.
Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction — toward the small.
On growing up, and becoming an adult
We practice, we learn, learn and practice. We make mistakes and then start over again. …
We try on different ways of being. We sample and discard different attitudes, approaches, influences, and tools for living until, piece by piece, we begin to better understand what suits us best, what helps us most.
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