Favorite Quote

This post is part of a series called “35 Days of Favorites”, in honor of my 35th birthday. You can read more about the details here…

Last year, I shared my favorite quote here. It was a good one. I still have it up on my fridge.

But there’s another quote that I’ve loved for a long time, and it’s been especially clear in my mind this past year:

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I first heard it while watching the movie Benjamin Button, which was haunting and beautiful and worth crying over.

But when I read this quote on its own later on, that last part stuck with me: “I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

It’s easy to become stuck. It’s also easy to become discouraged, and get into the habit of complaining, and blaming everyone else for the things that are not going well.

But the strength to start over? To me, that goes right along with joy coming in the morning, and fresh mercies every day.

My dad is the greatest example to me of someone who has the strength to start over.

Because his dad was sick, my dad had to drop out of school when he was in the eight grade so that he could help run the family farm. But lack of schooling never held him back for a moment, and he has accomplished a wide variety of things in his life – farming, shipping grain to third world countries, designing play structures, traveling all over the world, renovating homes for retired missionaries in Florida, and the list will go on for as long as he lives.

I clearly remember a talk we had when I was in high school, while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I tend to fall into the trap of perfectionism, and thinking there is only “One Right Choice” in any given situation. I was a complete wreck when it came to figuring out my future.

How could I possibly decide, at the age of 18, what I wanted to do for the rest of my life?

There was a lot of pressure at school to get this figured out, but I remember my dad asking, “Why do you need to know that right now?”

That night, he told me I had a whole lifetime to figure out what I was going to do with it.

And he said that if I ended up doing something I didn’t like, I could just change it.

Have the strength to start all over again.

It reminds me of this quote by Mary Oliver:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

We get one life – but not one chance.

At any point, we can start over, start fresh, and figure it all out again.

I never want to get stuck, and I don’t want to be afraid to change and learn and grow.

I want the strength to start over, live this life well, learn from my mistakes, and do better the next time.

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I love a good quote, so share your favorites with me!