I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world-present and in awe.

You have to keep taking the next necessary stitch, and the next one, and the next. Without stitches, you just have rags. And we are not rags.

Frequently, as so many poets and psalmists and songwriters have said, the invisible shift happens through the broken places.

When faced with a crisis, do three things: breathe, pray and be kind.

You don't want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can't fill up when you're holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water - just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness.

I don't remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don't even know exist until you love a child.

The Giants are usually described as rag tag, kind of a great garage sale team, and the Democrats are described as the Mommies to the Republican Daddies; and everyone hates the mommies, but wait, wait - I didn't intend to get into the pathos and thrill of being a Democratic Giants fan.