Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.

It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right. We're bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they're not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to the others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull.

I was the angriest daughter on earth, and also, one of the most devoted.

When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.

When you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

If you are hoping to find your self-worth and fulfillment in other peoples' opinion of your writing, you will never find it.

Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.