‘We have no control over it, but what we do have control over is whether we can be proud of our own lives. I mean, that’s something we have complete say over – it’s kind of hard to even describe – I think I’m just as confused as everyone else on how to make our lives a piece of art, but I think that’s part of the joy – simply trying.
I can stand up here and genuinely tell you that I am genuinely proud of my life.
I am so proud to be alive. I’m not saying that I don’t feel pain. I’m not saying that I don’t feel sadness and suffering and loneliness, because that’s what it means to be a human being, but I’m saying that that pain and that loneliness and that sadness is beautiful.
We live in a society that benefits off of us continuously looking for happiness and dreams and goals out here, right? If we say no, we’re not gonna go looking out there for our happiness, we are alive, and that is all we need. …
You’re never gonna be happy with what you get unless you’re happy with what you have, and that’s what you have to do with your life. You have to look at all of it. All of the pain, all of the loneliness, all of the beauty, all the friendship and the sickness and the health, and you have to lay it all in front of you and you have to say, okay, this is what I have, it’s all wonderful. What can I make with it?‘
– Claire Wineland
It's never been better 