Life Lessons In Heather Lende's Find The Good

In Heather Lende’s book, Find the Good, she writes in a way that makes the story seem uniquely personal. She doesn’t shy away from talking about her true feelings in her own experiences, even when they aren’t a feeling that she particularly agrees with at the time that she wrote the book, like her feelings when her adopted daughter, Stoli, was unmarried and pregnant at the age of twenty one. Even though they were a happy couple at the time and seemed completely prepared to have their first child, Heather was very worried about it and even thought to herself that “I must have done a bad job” (Lende 33). However, Heather learns from reacting this way and strives to be the best mother that she can be after this. Throughout this book, you get a sense that you are learning these valuable life lessons alongside Heather, rather than her simply telling you about them. This is similar to how she presents the people in the obituaries that she writes, as she presents herself with all of her flaws and negative reactions, rather than presenting herself as having known them all along. In her obituaries, although she focuses on what makes each person good, she doesn’t seem to sugarcoat it too much, pointing out negative aspects of themselves as well, which

This is something that I try to keep in mind in my daily life, that I will never be perfect, those around me will never be perfect, and that it’s perfectly okay to never be perfect. However, even though most can agree that the notion of perfection is unobtainable, that doesn’t stop us from setting our goals there. Heather Lende talks about this idea and about “shedding” the idea of perfection (19). Instead, we need to focus on what’s pretty good in our lives, whether it be our family, the hobbies that we enjoy, or the friends that we make throughout our