Louisa May Alcott on Being Brave in the Process of Learning
The power of learning to sail your ship.
Photo by Praveesh Palakeel on Unsplash
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Little Women has been my most favorite book since I was a little girl. As an adult, and a writer, I am fascinated by Louisa May Alcott. Her life, her relationship with her family and the place where she grew up and her work, all of it speaks to me on a soul level and it always has.
Jo March, of course, is Louisa May Alcott. And Jo might as well be my spirit animal. I wanted to be her when I grew up. I still do.
But the quote above, one of the most famous from Little Women, isn’t a line of Jo’s dialogue. It comes from her youngest sister, Amy.
One of the ways I felt connected to Jo when I was a girl was to her awkwardness. Her plainness was something I understood. When she cuts off her hair, Amy — whose weakness is vanity — laments the loss of Jo’s ‘one beauty.’