When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.

If you fixate on the big picture, the whole shebang, the overview, you miss the stitching.

Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.

I am all the ages I've ever been.

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.

They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.

Some people won't go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.