I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. I can be received gladly or grudgingly, in big gulps or in tiny tastes, lik...
Every Sunday I nudge Sam in her direction, and he walks to where she is sitting and hugs her. She smells him behind the ears, where he most smells like sweet unwashed new potatoes. This is in fact wha...
Most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you.
Most of me was glad when my mother died. She was a handful, but not in a cute, festive way. More in a life-threatening way, that had caused me a long time ago to give up all hope of ever feeling good...
When we're dealing with the people in our family - no matter how annoying or gross they may be, no matter how self-inflicted their suffering may appear, no matter how afflicted they are with ignorance...
… good dialogue encompasses both what is said and what is not said.
His cell phone—the adolescent’s pacemaker.
When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.
Thurber was right when he said, You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backwards.
The single most radical thing I know . . . is that I get to take care of myself.
Some people have a thick skin and you don't. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world.
Periods in the wilderness or desert were not lost time. You might find life, wildflowers, fossils, sources of water.
Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, I hate you, God. That is a prayer too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in...
One of the immutable laws of being human is that the people who show up are the right people.
One has to be done with the pretense of being just fine, unscarred, perfectly self-sufficient. No one is.
Of course, there will always be more you could do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.
If it is someone else’s problem, you probably don’t have the solution.
I knew to put on my favorite earrings. Sometimes you start with the outside and you get it right. You tend to your spirit through the body.
I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.
I learned that God was an equal opportunity employer—that it was possible to experience the divine anywhere you were, anywhere you could see the sun and moon rise or set, or burn through the fog.