The Light We Carry Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Reviews
Once again, the stories Michelle pens down, make her sooo relatable! It’s almost like my mum giving me advice based on life experiences! Great read if you want some self-help and perspective in life :)
super inspiring!
I really enjoyed Michelle's first book and I liked this one just as much. I listened to the audiobook and I was glad I did because Michelle narrates it and I love getting to hear a memoir author's voice read their own words the way they meant for them to be heard / read. The book is filled with insight, inspiring thoughts and memories from Michelle's life and is a thoroughly enjoyable, well-written read.
2.5 stars. I really liked Michelle Obama’s Becoming but this one was just so boring. I am happy I listened to it as audiobook and didn’t read it.
She did it again. SUCH a wise, inspiring, uplifting book. Will forever read anything Michelle Obama writes!
Another great read from Michelle Obama. This was a much faster read compared to "Becoming". I was able to resonate with a lot of the themes in this book (parenting, the path to success, detractors, etc.) and it was refreshing to see radical transparency from someone as well-known as the former FLOTUS.
Personally a huge Michelle Obama fan, so I loved another installment of audiobook from her ♥️ she gives great life advice, and this was no change. Perfect weekend read!
Written as a follow up to her book Becoming, Michelle Obama shares some of her wisdom and strategies for coping with uncertainty and maintaining our hope and balance in life.
When I read the introduction of this book, I started to worry that it would read too much like a self-help guide, despite her urgencies that it was not written that way. However, I never felt that way at all in the entirety of the book.
Rather it just draws on experiences shes encountered; from herself, her husband, her family and friends, but also those hidden voices she come into contact with during and as a consequence from her time as First Lady.
Its so eloquently written, so full of determination and heart, that every page feels like an old friend helping to guide you through your worries and find reassurance at the end.
As with her first book, Becoming, you have her honesty and her relatability translate through the page. She has such a way of providing comfort, even when she admits she doesn't have all the answers, that I couldn't help but feel drawn to her while I was reading.
Another enjoyable and inspirational read!
Highlights
How do we right ourselves inside a storm that shows no sign of abating? How do we find stability when the air around us remains unsettled and the ground seems to shift constantly beneath our feet?I think it begins, in part, when we are able to find a sense of agency and purpose inside of ongoing flux, when we remember that small power can be meaningful power. Cast- ing a vote matters. Helping a neighbor matters. Lending your time and energy to a cause you believe in matters. Speaking up when you see a person or group of people being denigrated or dehumanized matters. Showing your gladness for another soul, be it your child, or a coworker, or even someone you pass on the street, matters. Your small actions become an instrument for your own visibility, your own steadiness and sense of con- nection. They can help remind you that you, too, matter.
Going high is about resisting the temptation to participate in shallow fury and corrosive contempt and instead figuring out how to respond with a clear voice to whatever is shallow and corrosive around you. It's what happens when you take a reaction and mature it into a response.
Am I afraid because I’m in actual danger, or is it simply because I’m staring newness in the face?
Our hurts become our fears. Our fears become our limits.
In trying to spare yourself the worry and discomfort of taking a risk, you're potentially costing yourself an opportunity. In clinging only to what you know, you are making your world small. You are robbing yourself of chances to grow.
What does it mean to be comfortably afraid? For me, the idea is simple. It's about learning to deal wisely with fear, finding a way to let your nerves guide you rather than stop you. It's settling yourself in the presence of life's inevitable zombies and monsters so that you may contend with them more rationally, and trusting your own assessment of what's harmful and what's not. When you live this way, you are neither fully comfortable nor fully afraid. You accept that there's a middle zone and learn to operate inside of it, awake and aware, but not held back.