After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes. Often it is awe or admiration, sometimes it is repulsion, once or twice it has been fury hurled directly at me for reasons I remain unsure of.

I wish you all a long and happy life

As she brought prospective buyers through, the realtor said it was an oil stain, but it was me, seeping out of the bag.

His love for my mother wasn't about looking back and loving something that would never change. It was about loving my mother for everything -- for her brokenness and her fleeing, for her being there right then in that moment before the sun rose and the hospital staff came in. It was about touching that hair with the side of his fingertip, and knowing yet plumbing fearlessly the depths of her ocean eyes.

I like gardening - it's a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself.

I have never been shy about listening to the input of others and weighing it seriously.

I'm just a friendly bystander who they occasionally ask questions of. That's my level of involvement.