Having a child as a single mother was a crucible - maybe this is true for all parents. I got rid of so much stuff that didn't really matter in the scheme of things-like throwing stuff out of an airplane that kept me flying too low. What was left was essential, i.e. not a lot of extraneous stuff that had kept me busy and people-pleasing. I just didn't have the luxury of wasting my life force on so much stupidity and distraction. That made me strong.

Radical self-care is what we've been longing for, desperate for, our entire lives-friendship with our own hearts.

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

Toni Morrison said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else," and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do?

Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.

The problem with God - or at any rate, one of the top five most annoying things about God - is that he or she rarely answers right away.

No one is more sentimentalized in America than mothers on Mother's Day, but no one is more often blamed for the culture's bad people and behavior.