Quotes from Joanna Campbell Slan

guess I'm growing up, because I've come to the realization that if you have to tiptoe around a person, you can never have an honest relationship. Toe shoes are for ballerinas to wear on stage. They don't work so well in real life. Poppy

In the big scheme of life, who knows how things will turn out? What seems to be a disaster at the time can bring you joy you never dreamed of. What seems like a wrong road could be the right one. There are no right decisions, only decisions that seem to go more smoothly than others. There are no wrong turns, only unexpected potholes in the road. And at the end of the day, all you can do is keep moving forward even when it's only an inch at a time. - Kiki Lowenstein

Sure, I've helped out over the years when I've heard that a friend or a customer is facing tough times, but I've never expected anything in return. I gave out of gratitude because I've been blessed with enough to share.

Tutum te robore reddam, which means I shall render you safe by my strength and she means every word of it.

Life is a series of solo experiences made bearable by the comfort of friends. - Kiki Lowenstein

What I lacked in my mother, I'd found in my women friends.

Let's play our 'benefit of the doubt' game, shall we?" This was a game that I invented when she was little. The goal was to remind ourselves not to take things personally, to extend grace to others by recognizing that we don't know what's happening in their lives. What started as a way to teach empathy wound up being a wonderful tool for me.

for what we've had, instead of sadder for what we've lost.

Whenever people were nasty, mean or downright rude, I returned to our "benefit of the doubt" game and imagined all the extenuating circumstances in their lives that might excuse their behavior.

Can you see Alaska from here?" "No." "But you know it's there, right? And you can't see your heart, but you feel it beat, right? That's what faith is about. We believe in what we can't see. Instead, we look for signs.

Thank you, God, for unexpected joys. For the simple moments in life that make me smile. For the precious gift of loving friends and pets.

Ugh." I glanced at my own freezer, which is about the size of a shoebox. No bodies there! No red meat, either.  I can't afford it, and my daughter has become a chick-a-terian. That was my word for "a person who only eats chicken and no other meat.

deserves your best every day of your life.

none of us make it through life without committing a faux pas that requires a serious, heartfelt, breast-beating apology. By

Living is hard and judging is easy.

but I remembered what a therapist once told me, "People like doing favors for each other. Don't deny someone else the pleasure, Kiki, just because you can't handle feeling obligated.

Envy is a one-dimensional, shallow emotion. It roots in superficial soil and withers in the bright light of intimacy.

The worst part of being a parent is knowing you'll make mistakes, and fearing them, and feeling the pain that accompanies the inevitability of letting your child down. But two people can better strategize. Two people can talk through the process. Two people can bear the disappointments more fully and comfort each other with the reminder "we did our best.

of the most powerful aspects of friendship is the alleviation of loneliness. When another person indicates that they understand us, that we are no longer alone, there's an expansion of joy in our chests, a feeling like no other. All of us live in solitary confinement, waiting for a friend to appear and set us free.

Show me who you are friends with, and I will tell you who you are.

The Universe is testing your resolve. Whenever we make a change, the static forces align and form a barrier.

But Rabbi Sarah had said, "For some people, faith is like a gold liquid that takes the shape of whatever vessel it's poured into.

its twenty-three carat gold-gilded dome, stood

top of one wall was a saying by Nietzsche: "One must feel the chaos within to give