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Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
Marie Claire’s The 2020 Books You Should Pre-Order Now
The Washington Post’s What to Read in 2020 Based on the Books You Loved in 2019
Parade’s 25 Self-Help Books To Get Your 2020 Off On The Right Foot
“Keep Moving speaks to you like an encouraging friend reminding you that you can feel and survive deep loss, sink into life’s deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new.” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and Untamed
For fans of Anne Lamott and Cleo Wade, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life’s challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience.
When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem “Good Bones,” started writing daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?
The Washington Post’s What to Read in 2020 Based on the Books You Loved in 2019
Parade’s 25 Self-Help Books To Get Your 2020 Off On The Right Foot
“Keep Moving speaks to you like an encouraging friend reminding you that you can feel and survive deep loss, sink into life’s deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new.” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and Untamed
For fans of Anne Lamott and Cleo Wade, a collection of quotes and essays on facing life’s challenges with creativity, courage, and resilience.
When Maggie Smith, the award-winning author of the viral poem “Good Bones,” started writing daily Twitter posts in the wake of her divorce, they unexpectedly caught fire. In this deeply moving book of quotes and essays, Maggie writes about new beginnings as opportunities for transformation. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, Keep Moving celebrates the beauty and strength on the other side of loss. This is a book for anyone who has gone through a difficult time and is wondering: What comes next?
214 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2020
About the author
Maggie Smith
16 books1,683 followersMaggie Smith is the author of the national bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change (One Signal/Simon & Schuster 2020); Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017); The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press 2015), winner of the Dorset Prize, selected by Kimiko Hahn; and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press 2005), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award; and three prizewinning chapbooks.
Smith's poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, Image, The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, AGNI, Guernica, Brevity, the Washington Post, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, and many other journals and anthologies. In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. In April 2017 the poem was featured on the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary.
A 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Maggie Smith works as freelance writer and editor. She is an Editor at Large at the Kenyon Review and is also on the faculty of Spalding University's low-residency MFA program.
Smith's poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, Image, The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, AGNI, Guernica, Brevity, the Washington Post, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, and many other journals and anthologies. In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. In April 2017 the poem was featured on the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary.
A 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Maggie Smith works as freelance writer and editor. She is an Editor at Large at the Kenyon Review and is also on the faculty of Spalding University's low-residency MFA program.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 882 reviews
September 19, 2020
3.5 Although Smith is focusing on her own mental health after her divorce, there is much within that can apply to our current situation. We have all suffered losses this year whether it be loved ones, loss of freedom, loss of living without fear, loss of businesses, livlhoods We all share a common grief over the heartache and lack of control over what is happening in the world, in our own countries, states. Covid has upended our lives in unprecedented ways, creating a new normal but one not easily excepted.
I don't read many self help books, find much in them that is just pure common sense. Daily aspirations have never worked for me, though I know they have helped others. While this book does contain the usual common sense motivations, there are several that stood out for me.
"Trust that the present moment--however difficult, however different from what you imagined--has something to teach you"
"Stop thinking of change as interruption to a story; the story was always going to change, many times. It was never guaranteed. In fact, only change is guaranteed. Expect it today, and from now on?"
ARC from Edelweiss.
I don't read many self help books, find much in them that is just pure common sense. Daily aspirations have never worked for me, though I know they have helped others. While this book does contain the usual common sense motivations, there are several that stood out for me.
"Trust that the present moment--however difficult, however different from what you imagined--has something to teach you"
"Stop thinking of change as interruption to a story; the story was always going to change, many times. It was never guaranteed. In fact, only change is guaranteed. Expect it today, and from now on?"
ARC from Edelweiss.
May 22, 2020
Minuscule snippets of Smith’s divorce, miscarriages, and postpartum depression are buried among annoyingly repetitive self-affirmations. The phrase “Keep Moving” appears 170 times in only 224 pages (per kindle search function). As a whole, this lacked cohesiveness and purpose. A straight up memoir about her experiences would’ve been more impactful.
PUB DATE: 10.6.2020
Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this book!
PUB DATE: 10.6.2020
Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this book!
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October 10, 2020I am loving loving LOVING Maggie Smith's book. It is the perfect book for these difficult times and really spoke to me as someone who needs to feel creative to feel alive—challenging at the moment! Just bought my second copy this morning at Waterstones, Cardiff ! Lent the other.
December 16, 2020
It’s not great, I have to say. And I know this review is going to spat upon. But this book is quite trite. And UNLESS, you’ve lived under a rock your whole life, there is very little here you haven’t heard before, read somewhere, heard similarly, or just known in your bones. Now, I am not knocking self-help books or life motivational guides. They are GREAT and hugely impactful. Sometimes they are wildly unique in the perspective they offer, and some of them just find you at the right place at the right time.
Maybe this was not the right book and at the wrong time. It arrived at a time I was healing from a series of anxious episodes and had been pecking at various of motivational, spiritual, sources to help me past that point. This book is pretty much just that. A bunch of sweetly rendered, thought-calming platitudes that are designed to encourage the despondent and inject a ray of hope into an otherwise colourless existence.
Do not be led by fear; fear cannot lead you out of the dark.
Find whatever bits of hope you can—
a trail of even the smallest bread crumbs,
even the tiniest pebbles
reflecting the moonlight—and follow them.
KEEP MOVING.
That is the kind of thing I am talking about. I have read this in a greeting card, I am certain. It isn't insincere, it's just... vapid. While the words are kind, they do not inspire with authenticity. The words are parlayed; seen, heard, disgested, regurgitated.
For those for whom these words are life jackets, more power to you. I believe in the right book at the right time. May it find its way to you and bring you what you need.
Maybe this was not the right book and at the wrong time. It arrived at a time I was healing from a series of anxious episodes and had been pecking at various of motivational, spiritual, sources to help me past that point. This book is pretty much just that. A bunch of sweetly rendered, thought-calming platitudes that are designed to encourage the despondent and inject a ray of hope into an otherwise colourless existence.
Do not be led by fear; fear cannot lead you out of the dark.
Find whatever bits of hope you can—
a trail of even the smallest bread crumbs,
even the tiniest pebbles
reflecting the moonlight—and follow them.
KEEP MOVING.
That is the kind of thing I am talking about. I have read this in a greeting card, I am certain. It isn't insincere, it's just... vapid. While the words are kind, they do not inspire with authenticity. The words are parlayed; seen, heard, disgested, regurgitated.
For those for whom these words are life jackets, more power to you. I believe in the right book at the right time. May it find its way to you and bring you what you need.
July 14, 2023
This is one to add to my Writing Reference and Inspiration bookshelf so I can refer to it in those moments I need reassurance and redirection. Maggie Smith combines a series of social-media ready inspirational tidbits with brief essays on resilience and rebirth and the creative process. It's a lovely gem of a book, a meditation on grief and creativity that this writer found so relatable.
September 20, 2020
This little inspirational volume is probably best appreciated in snippets, as a regular dose of affirmation and cheerleading that could help the reader "keep moving" through difficult seasons of life. I read it in one sitting and found it too repetitive, but that was my fault-- not the book's.
My more important quibble with the book is that optimism, determination, and acceptance aren't sufficient for facing life's hardest challenges. Sometimes, we are crushed beneath the weight of loss. Sometimes, we can't, as Smith suggests, "make a new door" in a wall. The wall is simply impenetrable. I am a white, middle-class, cis, straight American woman who has never lost someone I loved permanently; I recognized several of Smith's affirmations as things I've told myself to get through rough patches. But I wondered how these would sound to someone unhoused during this pandemic. How would an undocumented farm worker in California's Central Valley receive these snippets? What about families and communities that have lost loved ones to racist police violence, COVID, or suicide, how would they hear this?
I will keep this book as a resource to suggest to certain people going through certain difficulties-- but always and only in conjunction with other resources and practices that encourage stopping and noticing, letting go and grieving, simply being instead of moving.
#NetGalley, #KeepMoving
My more important quibble with the book is that optimism, determination, and acceptance aren't sufficient for facing life's hardest challenges. Sometimes, we are crushed beneath the weight of loss. Sometimes, we can't, as Smith suggests, "make a new door" in a wall. The wall is simply impenetrable. I am a white, middle-class, cis, straight American woman who has never lost someone I loved permanently; I recognized several of Smith's affirmations as things I've told myself to get through rough patches. But I wondered how these would sound to someone unhoused during this pandemic. How would an undocumented farm worker in California's Central Valley receive these snippets? What about families and communities that have lost loved ones to racist police violence, COVID, or suicide, how would they hear this?
I will keep this book as a resource to suggest to certain people going through certain difficulties-- but always and only in conjunction with other resources and practices that encourage stopping and noticing, letting go and grieving, simply being instead of moving.
#NetGalley, #KeepMoving
August 4, 2020
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Maybe I should give a second disclaimer about how Maggie and I have followed each other on Twitter for years. Long enough that I remember when she posted she and her husband had separated, and though I'm not great at keeping up with Twitter, I remember purposely looking at Maggie's posts because through her pain she somehow found such bravery. I went through my own personal struggles during the time Maggie launched her "keep going" posts--little notes of encouragement for herself, but so much more than that. These notes held so much wisdom, so much truth, and they kept me going when I wanted to give up. So many days I'd jump onto Twitter for no other reason, but to see Maggie's posts, to find a scrap of optimism in a bleak day. I was thrilled to hear about her book deal, that these sage truth nuggets would be bound together. I love the way the notes are compiled and given context through little essays, sprinkled throughout the book. I love the way the book gave me the same sense of hope and possibility her tweets gave me. Anyone feeling pessimistic and discouraged needs this book.
Maybe I should give a second disclaimer about how Maggie and I have followed each other on Twitter for years. Long enough that I remember when she posted she and her husband had separated, and though I'm not great at keeping up with Twitter, I remember purposely looking at Maggie's posts because through her pain she somehow found such bravery. I went through my own personal struggles during the time Maggie launched her "keep going" posts--little notes of encouragement for herself, but so much more than that. These notes held so much wisdom, so much truth, and they kept me going when I wanted to give up. So many days I'd jump onto Twitter for no other reason, but to see Maggie's posts, to find a scrap of optimism in a bleak day. I was thrilled to hear about her book deal, that these sage truth nuggets would be bound together. I love the way the notes are compiled and given context through little essays, sprinkled throughout the book. I love the way the book gave me the same sense of hope and possibility her tweets gave me. Anyone feeling pessimistic and discouraged needs this book.
April 8, 2021
Stop searching yourself trying to understand why someone else treated you the way they did. The answer is not inside you; it's inside them, out of reach.
January 4, 2021
I‘ve enjoyed aesthetic gloom for something like fifteen years now. Embracing cynicism and doom gave my younger self an easy path forward (and there are some things from that time that I’ll always love), but I’m starting to accept that any kind of future worth having is going to require at a minimum some dabbling in hope. With that in mind, I think Smith’s book might be exactly what my (and possibly your) 2020 needed.
“Today I think of myself as a ‘recovering pessimist.’ I know that optimism is not at odds with wisdom. It’s quite the opposite. I think of cynicism as cool but lazy, while hope is desperately uncool—it has sweaty palms and an earnest smile on its face. What I know to be true is that one hopeful person will accomplish more than a hundred cynics. Why? Because the hopeful person will try.” (205)
“Today I think of myself as a ‘recovering pessimist.’ I know that optimism is not at odds with wisdom. It’s quite the opposite. I think of cynicism as cool but lazy, while hope is desperately uncool—it has sweaty palms and an earnest smile on its face. What I know to be true is that one hopeful person will accomplish more than a hundred cynics. Why? Because the hopeful person will try.” (205)
December 1, 2020
I read "Good Bones" at some point in the past few years and so when I saw that the poet was releasing a new book on loss, creativity and change, I was excited to pick up a copy.
There were some good pieces in this and I don't want to act like her losses are insignificant. If you've been on this planet for more than a few days, you've probably suffered some loss in life and so it's a place where we can all connect.
I hate to say it but a lot of it felt like something I would expect from a Rupi Kaur book with a lot of instagram-like posts about keeping moving.
Even with a 2-star rating, I'd give it as a gift or recommend it to others. Just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't for someone else.
There were some good pieces in this and I don't want to act like her losses are insignificant. If you've been on this planet for more than a few days, you've probably suffered some loss in life and so it's a place where we can all connect.
I hate to say it but a lot of it felt like something I would expect from a Rupi Kaur book with a lot of instagram-like posts about keeping moving.
Even with a 2-star rating, I'd give it as a gift or recommend it to others. Just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't for someone else.
November 15, 2020
“Stop searching yourself trying to understand why someone else treated you the way they did: the answer is not inside you, it’s inside of them, out of reach. Instead, work on understanding—truly knowing—yourself.” —KEEP MOVING.
In Keep Moving, author Maggie Smith gives us resources on how to keep moving in the midst of all else while grappling with her own challenges. After struggling through a divorce followed by single parenthood, postpartum depression, anxiety, loss and grief, Smith finds comfort in her writing and in being alone.
The book is filled with affirming notes and positive thoughts, encouraging readers to lean into change rather than avoiding and isolating. Advocating that change is not erasure but oftentimes the transformation we need.
I appreciated the overarching them and title of the book, Keep moving as a challenge to stand in hope amidst your fears. 3.5 ⭐️‘s.
In Keep Moving, author Maggie Smith gives us resources on how to keep moving in the midst of all else while grappling with her own challenges. After struggling through a divorce followed by single parenthood, postpartum depression, anxiety, loss and grief, Smith finds comfort in her writing and in being alone.
The book is filled with affirming notes and positive thoughts, encouraging readers to lean into change rather than avoiding and isolating. Advocating that change is not erasure but oftentimes the transformation we need.
I appreciated the overarching them and title of the book, Keep moving as a challenge to stand in hope amidst your fears. 3.5 ⭐️‘s.
May 12, 2022
"What's worse than suffering? Suffering but pretending that you aren't -- by gluing ourselves, our lives, back together, hoping no one notices the many breaks."
This book contains tiny affirmations that as we navigate through pain, grief, and change we can and will come out the other side stronger. Love this one ❤️
This book contains tiny affirmations that as we navigate through pain, grief, and change we can and will come out the other side stronger. Love this one ❤️
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January 21, 2021Sometimes I feel shame that I'm still not "over" my divorce-- that even in a new life that's so much better, I have this last, lingering bit of grief and anger just rolling around. I found some of the short aphorisms and notes in this book incredibly affirming (oh, I'm not the only one who feels this way!) and the language beautiful. I found a lot of potential journal prompts in this book.
And, for what it's worth, I would absolutely give this book to someone going through a divorce. This was the kind of book I really needed then (and still needed now).
And, for what it's worth, I would absolutely give this book to someone going through a divorce. This was the kind of book I really needed then (and still needed now).
February 22, 2021
"What I know to be true is that one hopeful person will accomplish more than 100 cynics. Why? Because the hopeful person will try."
I wouldn't say this book was life-changing or anything only because it wasn't relatable for me personally (as she is writing from the perspective of a recent divorcee mother of two). Even so, I still enjoyed listening, it was very quick, and I could agree with some of her points and perspectives. If I could go back, I wouldn't have chosen the audiobook - I almost couldn't handle hearing "keep moving" repeated over and over throughout the book.
Also, I have never related more:
"My thinking was this: If I expect the worst, and the worst doesn't happen, I will be pleasantly surprised BUT if I expect the worst, and the worst happens, not only will I be prepared but I will have been right."
I wouldn't say this book was life-changing or anything only because it wasn't relatable for me personally (as she is writing from the perspective of a recent divorcee mother of two). Even so, I still enjoyed listening, it was very quick, and I could agree with some of her points and perspectives. If I could go back, I wouldn't have chosen the audiobook - I almost couldn't handle hearing "keep moving" repeated over and over throughout the book.
Also, I have never related more:
"My thinking was this: If I expect the worst, and the worst doesn't happen, I will be pleasantly surprised BUT if I expect the worst, and the worst happens, not only will I be prepared but I will have been right."
November 15, 2020
It's not often I find a book that's everything I need in a moment. For me, this was that kind of book. I've been dealing (or not dealing?) with grief (from a variety of things from divorce to death) for a while now. This book was what I needed. I appreciated the poetic quotes and bits and pieces of a story.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book to a friend going through hard times. It's the type of book I'm not quite ready to pass on yet as I still turn back to various pages and ponder the words on the page.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book to a friend going through hard times. It's the type of book I'm not quite ready to pass on yet as I still turn back to various pages and ponder the words on the page.
October 24, 2020
Maggie’s voice is outstanding and this book is heartfelt & excellent. Short aphorisms to keep spirits up intermingled with short essays about moving foreword after loss. I love that we are OWU classmates & now friends & this book is a bestseller-wow!
January 16, 2022
Fabulous little snippets of the author's tweets about getting through each day after a loss. Lots to think about and lots to incorporate into life. Everything was so very relatable. Even if one hasn't had a tremendous loss.
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May 3, 2021This book is bright, emotional and full of encouragement. It was, to be honest, an uncomfortable read for me as I am not a bright, (comfortably) emotional or (easily) encouraged person. But, even though I have not experienced divorce or miscarriages, I really appreciate what Maggie Smith writes here. This last year (and longer for me) has been difficult in a lot of ways and the commitment to and reliance on moving forward are simple, beautiful and powerful.
I took a lot of comfort (and inspiration) from this book. If nothing else, it revealed some cynicism that I should take a closer look at. I'm glad I read this book. I'm glad I wasn't too cynical to read it. I think it will make the next however-long-I-can-keep-it-in-mind better.
I took a lot of comfort (and inspiration) from this book. If nothing else, it revealed some cynicism that I should take a closer look at. I'm glad I read this book. I'm glad I wasn't too cynical to read it. I think it will make the next however-long-I-can-keep-it-in-mind better.
December 20, 2021
This is a book with small snippets about acceptance and moving forward, as the title suggests. It's a simple self-help book, but not one with a long narrative as I wasn't in the mood for that - I think it wasn't written to be read at once but keep opening from time to time and reflecting. It's good to pick a few quotes when I'm feeling down and journal, almost as prompts, as I'm going through a tough time when it comes to choosing a path in life, embracing uncontrollable things. It's a good one to practice acceptance and letting go of the past. :)
"Stop straining to hold the door to the past
open, as if your old life is there, waiting, and
you could just slip right in. Stop wasting
your strength, because you can’t go back.
Muscle your way forward."
"Think of yourself as a nesting doll: How
many versions of yourself have you carried
this far, to this point? How many more
iterations will there be as you age? Know
there is room for all of you."
"Everything has been said and felt and done
before—but not by you. You are the only one
who can make your art, who can love in your
unique way"
"Let go of the narratives you've dragged around
for years: you are not who you were as a child,
or in year X, or on day Y—at least, not only.
You do not have to fit yourself into those old,
cramped stories."
"Ask yourself how much of your
self-image—what you believe to
be real and true about yourself—
is based on what others think of
you. Allow yourself room to
change. Let go of old narratives
that no longer fit."
"Stop straining to hold the door to the past
open, as if your old life is there, waiting, and
you could just slip right in. Stop wasting
your strength, because you can’t go back.
Muscle your way forward."
"Think of yourself as a nesting doll: How
many versions of yourself have you carried
this far, to this point? How many more
iterations will there be as you age? Know
there is room for all of you."
"Everything has been said and felt and done
before—but not by you. You are the only one
who can make your art, who can love in your
unique way"
"Let go of the narratives you've dragged around
for years: you are not who you were as a child,
or in year X, or on day Y—at least, not only.
You do not have to fit yourself into those old,
cramped stories."
"Ask yourself how much of your
self-image—what you believe to
be real and true about yourself—
is based on what others think of
you. Allow yourself room to
change. Let go of old narratives
that no longer fit."
February 17, 2024
A necessary companion for major life transitions, significant re-imaginings of yourself or your future, and/or generally difficult times. I don't think this would land outside of these life moments, so if it interests you, keep it in mind for when you need it! I listened to the audio book twice and then read a physical copy. I loved both, but I HIGHLY recommend starting with the audio book, so you have Maggie Smith's rhythm and voice in your head as you read the physical copy.
September 2, 2023
There is something special in listening to poems when the author reads them. You get swayed emotionally because you hear the vulnerability in their voice. As a result, you appreciate the poems, prose, and notes better.
You get spoken to as poems must have been intended to be.
You get spoken to as poems must have been intended to be.
January 17, 2023
Do not bargain away
pieces of yourself for
approval. It's a bad deal.
If there are conditions on
someone's love for you,
understand: that is not
love. Move on.
The timing of this book in my life was providential. People have complained about this book because they say it is too repetitive. I believe in the value of telling yourself the truth over and over and over again until you believe it.
& luv u, maggie smith
Total score: 5/5 stars
pieces of yourself for
approval. It's a bad deal.
If there are conditions on
someone's love for you,
understand: that is not
love. Move on.
The timing of this book in my life was providential. People have complained about this book because they say it is too repetitive. I believe in the value of telling yourself the truth over and over and over again until you believe it.
& luv u, maggie smith
Total score: 5/5 stars
April 12, 2023
4.5 but I rounded up. Loved listening to Maggie read this. Tender and inspiring.
November 18, 2020
I've had breakups that brought me to my knees, endings that left me destroyed, crying, hopeless. I think I learned a little from each of them, but I never worked the inspiring magic trick poet Maggie Smith did with
Keep Moving.
Somehow, she took the crushing, world-altering blow of a wrenching divorce and transformed it into hope for herself and others, not to mention writing a bestseller in the process.
I talk about books, life, and what's good on TV at Choco Wino's Magazine Wine Party.
Somehow, she took the crushing, world-altering blow of a wrenching divorce and transformed it into hope for herself and others, not to mention writing a bestseller in the process.
Smith started by writing a brief, hopeful note of encouragement to herself daily and posting it on social media. Every post ended with her advice to herself (and all of us) to "Keep moving."
Here she collects those quotes along with essays about how she moved forward into the light after a dark time. It's beautiful and provides a lot of self-advice that I want to remember and hold close as I struggle with so many things in life myself.
Gems of wisdom include:
Focus on who you are and what you’ve built, not who you’d planned on being and what you’d expected to have. Trust that the present moment—however difficult, however different from what you’d imagined—has something to teach you. Set down your grief for the life you intended to have but won’t; the grief will be there when you’re ready to come back to it. Now focus your mind on the life you intend to have. Commit to the present. KEEP MOVING.
Stop expecting the worst: at least as many things could go right as could go wrong. Think of optimism as a way of sitting in the sun now, regardless of what the weather might be tomorrow or next week. KEEP MOVING.
Everything is temporary. You can’t keep a white-knuckled hold on what you love or on what has hurt you. Loosen your grip on your grief today, if only a bit. KEEP MOVING.
This powerful book delivers a lift of your spirits and outlook. Enjoy the gifts Smith offers here with an open, optimistic heart. And for the love of God, keep moving.
I talk about books, life, and what's good on TV at Choco Wino's Magazine Wine Party.
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August 24, 2024This book was very not for me and very not for people grieving after a death. Throughout the book, Smith talks about grief but she is talking about the grief after a divorce - which for sure is grief - but is absolutely not the same. If someone said these words out loud to me right now I might actually throat punch them.
“Reflect on what loss has given you, as counterintuitive as that sounds. Think of the solitude, self-reflection, and self-reliance as gifts. Of course they don’t weigh the same as the grief - they don’t balance the scales - but be grateful for them anyway. Keep moving.”
“Try to shift your thinking away from loss and toward growth. Consider this difficult time a ‘gap year’ between your last life and what might happen next. Think of it as the first (messy, brave, hard, exhilarating) year of your new life. Keep moving.”
Literally the entire book was full of this. And, again, I recognize that these words might be comforting to someone who is grieving something other than a human who died but for me - it was actually laughable and infuriating. Like please don’t ever prescribe me anything for my grief at all. No thank you.
Which is why I’m not rating the book. I recognize it might be good for someone else at some other time. But I also wanted to say do not read this after a death or give it to someone who is grieving. Just a big no to that.
“Reflect on what loss has given you, as counterintuitive as that sounds. Think of the solitude, self-reflection, and self-reliance as gifts. Of course they don’t weigh the same as the grief - they don’t balance the scales - but be grateful for them anyway. Keep moving.”
“Try to shift your thinking away from loss and toward growth. Consider this difficult time a ‘gap year’ between your last life and what might happen next. Think of it as the first (messy, brave, hard, exhilarating) year of your new life. Keep moving.”
Literally the entire book was full of this. And, again, I recognize that these words might be comforting to someone who is grieving something other than a human who died but for me - it was actually laughable and infuriating. Like please don’t ever prescribe me anything for my grief at all. No thank you.
Which is why I’m not rating the book. I recognize it might be good for someone else at some other time. But I also wanted to say do not read this after a death or give it to someone who is grieving. Just a big no to that.
January 20, 2022
Anyone who overthinks a lot during gloomy moments might withdraw onto their own shell, in order not to ruin people’s daily routine with their negativity;
She flip the coin and observes we are here to care of another;
sharing your singular negativity towards them, so they could console you, is not the only thing that happens; you’re not only ruining their day. There’s a positive effect to it in the bigger picture.
The habit of caring person to person to person is also spreading and that’s the only effect that is infectious **on the long term**
(You will only annoy them for a minute or so, but when they will comfort you, it will infect you to do similar things for other people, and those other people will do jt for other people, again and again and again)
—
I have found poems that would dwell in my troubled mind the same way lullaby does to a 2 year old baby; using the moon and stars and subjects of attention to create something so soft and heartwarming during harrowing moments of loneliness
“Think of the moon,
how solitary it looks,
and know that’s just a trick of perspective:
the moon is not alone,
and neither are you.
Remember how vast and star-filled your universe is,
and how it continues to expand.
Shine on.”🥺
—-
it’s a recurrent issue in poems, expressing a miscellany of ideas; some of them will happen to caught my eye, to compel me, and others would seem weak, less impactful towards me… and neither are expanded. So we are left with a sprawling collection studying profoundly none intricately *enough*.
If the aim of a self help book is to help, the necessary to do is to infect the reader as much with your lesson; it’s to express your ideas thoroughly.
One poem about a topic , no matter how creative, and just move out to another isn’t enough; it will just be a breeze that caress me as long as the wind is there but the caressing effect will eventually stop with the winds.. with the poem ending. And this is what she did *not* do when it came to the importance of creativity in life.
Exploring one’s life as a draft, a story that we are consistently able to revise is such an entertaining way to view it for someone passionate about writing.
Write down your life the same way you’d write plot points of a new story.
Re-adjust it each time you fail to execute a plot point (maybe due to a misfortune or something out of control).
The beauty in life is that we are endlessly writing it;
The solution of approaching methodical planning of things you want to achieve in life is something I am currently doing even before this book ; and the same way it is satisfying to finish a long planned out story you’re proud of, so the same way it is satisfying to achieve a goal you’ve planned out beforehand.
And the best thing about life is that you can endlessly conceptualize stories; life is about letting your creativity speak out ! Constantly re-thinking ways of crafting, bettering life. We are artist. Our life is a collection of our pieces of art.
The future is empty, how will you fill it ?
Keep Moving -Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change by Maggie Smith: 8/10.
She flip the coin and observes we are here to care of another;
sharing your singular negativity towards them, so they could console you, is not the only thing that happens; you’re not only ruining their day. There’s a positive effect to it in the bigger picture.
The habit of caring person to person to person is also spreading and that’s the only effect that is infectious **on the long term**
(You will only annoy them for a minute or so, but when they will comfort you, it will infect you to do similar things for other people, and those other people will do jt for other people, again and again and again)
—
I have found poems that would dwell in my troubled mind the same way lullaby does to a 2 year old baby; using the moon and stars and subjects of attention to create something so soft and heartwarming during harrowing moments of loneliness
“Think of the moon,
how solitary it looks,
and know that’s just a trick of perspective:
the moon is not alone,
and neither are you.
Remember how vast and star-filled your universe is,
and how it continues to expand.
Shine on.”🥺
—-
it’s a recurrent issue in poems, expressing a miscellany of ideas; some of them will happen to caught my eye, to compel me, and others would seem weak, less impactful towards me… and neither are expanded. So we are left with a sprawling collection studying profoundly none intricately *enough*.
If the aim of a self help book is to help, the necessary to do is to infect the reader as much with your lesson; it’s to express your ideas thoroughly.
One poem about a topic , no matter how creative, and just move out to another isn’t enough; it will just be a breeze that caress me as long as the wind is there but the caressing effect will eventually stop with the winds.. with the poem ending. And this is what she did *not* do when it came to the importance of creativity in life.
Exploring one’s life as a draft, a story that we are consistently able to revise is such an entertaining way to view it for someone passionate about writing.
Write down your life the same way you’d write plot points of a new story.
Re-adjust it each time you fail to execute a plot point (maybe due to a misfortune or something out of control).
The beauty in life is that we are endlessly writing it;
The solution of approaching methodical planning of things you want to achieve in life is something I am currently doing even before this book ; and the same way it is satisfying to finish a long planned out story you’re proud of, so the same way it is satisfying to achieve a goal you’ve planned out beforehand.
And the best thing about life is that you can endlessly conceptualize stories; life is about letting your creativity speak out ! Constantly re-thinking ways of crafting, bettering life. We are artist. Our life is a collection of our pieces of art.
The future is empty, how will you fill it ?
Keep Moving -Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change by Maggie Smith: 8/10.
January 4, 2021
Beautiful, poignant, and encouraging. I’m glad I had the opportunity to read this.
March 3, 2020
"Think of grief, anger, worry as bricks or planks of wood. Stop staring at the materials, half believing they were delivered to you by mistake, half expecting a truck to haul them away. Accept that these are your materials right now. Start building. Keep moving."
I was introduced to Maggie Smith's work via Twitter, and her "Keep Moving" affirmations initially reminded me of the "Gmorning/Gnight" tweets of Lin-Manuel Miranda (also now in book form). Smith's messages of encouragement, however, have their genesis in a specific experience: the painful end of her 19-year marriage and the beginning of her new reality. Sections of her "keep moving" exhortations are connected by brief, moving descriptions of personal moments that inspired them.
I'd recommend reading this book in small doses; there are only so many pieces of insight that one can meaningfully process in a sitting. I do not say this flippantly; many of Smith's messages resonated strongly with me, and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone struggling with grief, change, and uncertainty. It is a book that I will purchase and return to again.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was introduced to Maggie Smith's work via Twitter, and her "Keep Moving" affirmations initially reminded me of the "Gmorning/Gnight" tweets of Lin-Manuel Miranda (also now in book form). Smith's messages of encouragement, however, have their genesis in a specific experience: the painful end of her 19-year marriage and the beginning of her new reality. Sections of her "keep moving" exhortations are connected by brief, moving descriptions of personal moments that inspired them.
I'd recommend reading this book in small doses; there are only so many pieces of insight that one can meaningfully process in a sitting. I do not say this flippantly; many of Smith's messages resonated strongly with me, and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone struggling with grief, change, and uncertainty. It is a book that I will purchase and return to again.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 5, 2024
KEEP MOVING is my IRL book club’s pick for January. I picked it up from the library yesterday and I read it really quickly, in a few hours, as it’s mostly pages of affirmations.
I liked a lot of the affirmations, like the one above, but my favorite parts of the book were the parts where Smith went into more detail, where she talked about her losses from losing her grandmother, two miscarriages, and divorce. Those were the times I felt a kinship toward her. Even if I hadn’t experienced loss quite the same way she had, I could still empathize with her and think of ways to apply her advice to my own life.
I really liked her perspective on things, especially when she talked about serotinous pine cones and how they only open and spread their seeds in the midst of fire. Or, how she likened trauma and loss to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold. The ceramic piece is beautiful because of its brokenness instead of in spite of it.
I wasn’t sure I’d like KEEP MOVING, but I’m glad I read it. I gave KEEP MOVING 3 stars because the ratio between affirmations to the parts I actually wanted to read was too high. Otherwise, I would’ve given it 4 stars.
I liked a lot of the affirmations, like the one above, but my favorite parts of the book were the parts where Smith went into more detail, where she talked about her losses from losing her grandmother, two miscarriages, and divorce. Those were the times I felt a kinship toward her. Even if I hadn’t experienced loss quite the same way she had, I could still empathize with her and think of ways to apply her advice to my own life.
I really liked her perspective on things, especially when she talked about serotinous pine cones and how they only open and spread their seeds in the midst of fire. Or, how she likened trauma and loss to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold. The ceramic piece is beautiful because of its brokenness instead of in spite of it.
I wasn’t sure I’d like KEEP MOVING, but I’m glad I read it. I gave KEEP MOVING 3 stars because the ratio between affirmations to the parts I actually wanted to read was too high. Otherwise, I would’ve given it 4 stars.
October 28, 2020
A collection of inspirational soundbites and personal stories written by Maggie Smith in the aftermath of her divorce. It’s basically one of those little wooden placards with a quotation on that you can buy and hang up in your kitchen, just in full-length book form. After a while you realise that Smith’s lovely writing is obscuring the fact that she’s just working through the same stages of grief as all of us do, and recycling the same platitudes in order to do it. There is definitely some valuable insight here — and some wonderful turns of phrase — but there’s also a lot of circuitous self-pity and, dare I say it, self-importance, as if Smith hasn’t quite realised that she isn’t the first person to arrive at these conclusions or express these sentiments.
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