It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

We're surrounded by mandates, and I believe that literature should be mandate-free. I feel very strongly about that.

People love to read about sins and errors, but not their own.

Now I'm starting to think he wasn't supposed to be my whole life, he was just this doorway to me.

It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

Planning complex, beautiful meals and investing one's heart and time in their preparation is the opposite of self-indulgence. Kitchen-based family gatherings are process-oriented, cooperative, and in the best of worlds, nourishing and soulful. A lot of calories get used up before anyone sits down to consume. But more importantly, a lot of talk happens first, news exchanged, secrets revealed across generations, paths cleared with a touch on the arm. I have given and received some of my life's most important hugs with those big oven-mitt potholders on both hands.

This will be Great Mam's last spring. Her last June apples. Her last fresh roasting ears from the garden.