These days cry out, as never before, for us to pay attention, so we can move through them and get our joy and pride back.

Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks.

I don't think anything is the opposite of love.

Laughter is carbonated holiness.

There is a door we all want to walk through and writing can help you find it and open it.

I did not raise my son, Sam, to celebrate Mother's Day. I didn't want him to feel some obligation to buy me pricey lunches or flowers, some annual display of gratitude that you have to grit your teeth and endure.

The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.