Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another.

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.

Toddlers can make you feel as if you have violated some archaic law in their personal Koran and you should die, infidel.

Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another.

Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. It means that you are willing to stop being such a jerk. When you are aware of all that has been given to you, in your lifetime and the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled, and pleased to give back.

I spend most of my time alone, because I so value and thrive in the quiet. Heaven.