#FionReads: [The Comfort Book]

I have been trying to keep three books on rotation lately just to add a little more variety to my day-to-day. It’s my first time doing this because, usually, I'm that person who needs to finish one book before even thinking about starting another. But ever since I heard this suggestion from a YouTuber (either Kalyn Nicholson or Jenn Im—I can’t remember which), I thought I’d give it a go.

Right now, my reading list is pretty diverse. I’m working through a Chinese fantasy novel, exploring the classic strategies in The Art of Sun Tzu (ngl, it gets a little heavy and dry at times), and I just finished The Comfort Book by Matt Haig.

That last one felt like a gentle hug in the form of words. Haig's reflections are simple but powerful reminders of resilience, compassion, and taking life moment by moment. So, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite quotes from The Comfort Book with you all, hoping they bring a bit of light and peace to your day.

♠ If we are distressed about something external, “the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

♠ Things weren’t always one thing or another thing. They were sometimes both.

♠ We are more than can be measured. We are life itself. We aren’t the narrow band of feelings in a single moment. We are the vessel that could contain any feeling. We are the subject in the sentence. We are more than the sum of our achievements. We are more than the feelings we witness. We are the infinity that remains when you subtract them.

♠ Stay for the person you will become.

♠ When we can’t speak, we can write. When we can’t write, we can read. When we can’t read, we can listen. Words are seeds. Language is a way back to life.

♠ Continually looking for the meaning of life is like looking for the meaning of toast. It is sometimes better just to eat the toast.

♠ The sky isn’t more beautiful if you have perfect skin. Music doesn’t sound more interesting if you have a six-pack. Dogs aren’t better company if you’re famous. Pizza tastes good regardless of your job title. The best of life exists beyond the things we are encouraged to crave.

♠ We all come from randomness. We exist out of uncertainty. Out of near impossibility. And yet we exist. So, when you feel the odds are against you it is important to realize that they are never so against you as they were when you didn’t exist.

♠ The flow of life is about accepting things as part of something bigger. Accepting every molecule of water as part of the river.

♠ Scroll your mind…Scroll your consciousness for reasons to be grateful to be you. The only fear of missing out that matters is the fear of missing out on yourself.

♠ Enjoy the present, free from worries. To actually live it the way we imagine…without fretting about what is to come, or without scrolling through Instagram until our thumb falls off. To Live.

♠ Your value has no because. You are the right quantity. You are a full cup. You are worth yourself, and that is always enough.

♠ Ruining the present by worrying about the future is like burning your most treasured possession simply because you might one day lose other possessions that you don’t own yet.

♠ Your self-worth is not found inside the minds of other people.

♠ It’s easy to be surrounded so entirely by a single view that almost anyone without that view becomes alien. But. We can look at the world through more than one lens. If we look at people through the lens of emotion, at the feelings that drive opinions, rather than the opinions themselves.

♠ The most powerful moment in life is when you decide not to be scared anymore.

If you haven’t read The Comfort Book, I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you’re in need of a little solace or a quiet friend in book form. It's the kind of book you can open to any page and find something that speaks to you—something that might help you make sense of the world or just feel a little more at home in it.