It turned out this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And she said gently-that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.

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.

Greasy food is so comforting when you are hungover.

Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?

There are these people who keep taking you in and feeding you and loving you and making the world a tiny bit safer than it feels. People have community and family, but existentially we are deeply isolated.

only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it.

When we search for something larger than our own selves to hook into, we can come through whatever life throws at us.