One of my great secrets was knowing I had the power to make her smile.

My early childhood was spent in Newark, New Jersey, but my family moved to Denver when I was 12.

I moved my arms through the water, feeling them float on the surface, watching the waves and wake that followed my gesture. Here was magic, I thought. Here was something holy.

My heart is a ladle of sweet water brimming over.

The painful things seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place.

Biblical names are hot again.

Egypt loved the lotus becuase it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name-two syllables, one high, one sweet- summon up the innumerable smiles, tears, sighs and dreams of a human life.