Quotes from Regina Brett

Cooking involves a deadline and hungry people and ingredients that expire in a week. It's stressful. Cooking happens on the stove and on the clock. Baking happens with ingredients that last for months and come to life inside a warm oven. Baking is slow and leisurely.

We are all on a journey of faith, and we have to polish that faith.

Pope Francis is not only changing the face of the Catholic Church, he's challenging us to be the face of God in the world by seeing the face of God in the person we least expect to see it, including the person in the mirror.

If you want to lose 40 pounds, you order salad instead of fries. If you want to be a better friend, you take the phone call instead of screening it. If you want to write a novel, you sit down and write a single paragraph. It's scary to make major changes, but we usually have enough courage to take the next right step.

Sometimes you have to censor books. When I read 'Peter Rabbit,' I skip the part about Peter's father ending up in one of Mrs. McGregor's pies. I also hid the book of 'Grimm Fairy Tales.' They're just too grim for my grandkids. Reality will come soon enough.

It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Eating something fresh out of the oven is like a hug you can taste.

Baking happens with ingredients that last for months and come to life inside a warm oven. Baking is slow and leisurely.

Cancer taught me to live only in the day I'm in. In the moment I'm in. Some moments, I simply ground myself by touching the desk, the table, the wall wherever I am and say, 'You're right here. Stay put in this moment.'

If you're lucky enough to still have grandparents, visit them, cherish them and celebrate them while you can.

Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

No one really has a bad life. Not even a bad day. Just bad moments.

Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

Most of life is showing up. You do the best you can, which varies from day to day.

If we threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.

We've come a long way from having one land line that was forbidden to be answered during dinner. We had no answering machine, just a dad who barked, 'Who calls during dinner? If it's important, they'll call back.' He was right.

If no one shopped on Thanksgiving Day, the stores wouldn't open. End of story. I say we all take the pledge and stay home. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for what you have, not to save a few dollars to get more.

It takes courage to sit on a jury. How many of us want to decide the fate of another person's life or freedom? How many of us want to hold that kind of power in our hands?

I say we all take the pledge and stay home. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for what you have, not to save a few dollars to get more.

Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.