Quotes from Mary Alice Monroe

To her mind, when you were drowning and a rope was thrown your way, you didn't waste time thinking about what to do. You just grabbed it, then kicked and swam like the devil to safety.

No knowledge is wasted

Love is a sprint. Marriage is a marathon. An endurance race, if you will.

Our children are grown, we've enjoyed some success in our lives, and we're looking for something else now to fulfill ourselves....It's like being adolescents all over again, only this time we don't care if everyone likes the way we look or the clothes we wear. Or even if people like us at all. That nasty competition is over. I see this as a time to be who we've always seen ourselves as being, deep in our hearts.

Research has found perceiving nature's beauty to be a significant predictor of life satisfaction. In other words, the more one perceived nature's beauty, the more one reported life satisfaction.

The secret to survival was in seeing the world through the eyes—and heart—of a child. That was Merry's lesson to her sisters. To treasure life, and most of all, to love. Simply, unconditionally and with joyful abandon. To love without demanding or expecting anything in return.

Ideas are gifts from the gods. When we receive one we have to bow to them and offer thanks. Humbly. And believe in the idea. Passionately. If you don't have faith in your idea, then how can you expect others to?

Synchronicity. Life isn't a series of random events at all, but rather an expression of a deeper order.

she'd neglected to make choices for her inner self as well. She'd given away too much.

Bad luck is what we conveniently call our bad choices.

One day she would recall this very twilit evening and the sight of her children dancing on the shore and then... Yes, then she would wish she had stopped to hold their chubby hands and play tag along with them.

But she had the chance now to make things right, at least for her daughter. She may have done a lot of things wrong, but the decision to give up her child would be the one responsible, unselfish act of her life. It was the best thing she'd ever done. But it felt like the worst.

Be strong, my baby girl. Be happy. You will survive." And so, she vowed, would she.

I think everyone should take time at least once a week to catch a sunrise, just to feel alive and that there is hope.

real courage is belief in yourself. To face and defeat your fear, or be defeated by it.

I wouldn't be worth my salt as a mother if I didn't pass on the family recipes.

But strength without flexibility makes one hard. Come September, when those fierce winds blow in from the sea, those hardwoods crack, splinter and fall. But the pliant palms are resilient and they bend with the wind. This is the secret of a Southern woman. Strength, resilience and beauty. We are never hard.

A mother never hears the words "I hate you" without cringing and feeling like a hopeless failure.

Wichita. The roads here are flat and I can see for miles. Easy driving. Times like these, I wish you were sitting here beside me chatting, instead

Luz felt as though all the millions of butterflies that were flying on this same journey south were fluttering in her stomach.

Sunflowers for Sarita is a fast-paced, high caliber romantic suspense. I couldn't stop reading!

She had to learn this painful lesson. And quickly. If you let it, grief could swallow you whole.

The beach, the ocean, solitude—these are only a means to help you travel to the true peace and joy inside you. You must carry the magic in your heart, wherever you go.

What had Van Gogh said? I would rather die of passion than of boredom.