A tree is such a rich metaphor in a million beautiful ways. You can consider a tree growing and consider its connectedness to all things above and under the ground.

Women always seemed to bring the size they wished they were to the fitting room, rather than the size that would actually fit.

She was alive, and they were dead. She had to try to make her life big. As big as she could. She promised Bailey she would keep playing.

People left a lot of things behind when they went in the water. Their clothes, their stuff, their makeup, their fixed-up hair, their voices, their hearing, their sight--at least as they normally experienced them....Some people lost their individuality in the water, but Riley always felt most herself. Water was supposed to symbolize renewal, she knew, but when Riley swam, pared down, alone, and unreachable--she felt a deeper sense of who she already was.

Shy” was the sympathetic interpretation she got from older people. “Snotty” was the interpretation she got from people her own age.

I sometimes think the stronger you feel about someone, the harder it is to picture their face when you are away from them.

You just have to let people love you in the way they can