Regina Brett Life Quotations

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

When I turned 45, I lay in bed reflecting on all life had taught me. My soul sprang a leak and ideas flowed out. My pen simply caught them and set the words on paper. I typed them up and turned them into a newspaper column of the 45 lessons life taught me. When I hit 50, I added five more lessons and the paper ran the column again.

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

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

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

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

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

When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

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

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

Going through chemo is like investing money in a retirement account. You feel the hit right now, but later in life you get to reap the benefits - by still being alive.

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.

Cancer taught me to stop saving things for a special occasion. Every day is special. You don't have to get cancer to start living life to the fullest. My post-cancer philosophy? No wasted time. No ugly clothes. No boring movies.

My life used to be like that game of freeze tag we played as kids. Once tagged, you had to freeze in the position you were in. Whenever something happened, I'd freeze like a statue, too afraid of moving the wrong way, of making the wrong decision. The problem is, if you stand still too long, that's your decision.