There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.

There are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other's cooking and say it was good.

We went to a church that had missionaries who'd come back once a year from Fiji & give talks. I remember one of them saying it was very hard work telling people they were going to lose their everlasting souls if they didn't shape up. I pictured people sitting on the beach listening to this sweaty man all dressed in black telling them they were going to burn in hell & them thinking this was good fun, these scary stories this guy was telling them & afterwards, they'd all go home & eat mango & fish & they'd play Monopoly & laugh & laugh & they'd go to bed & wake up the next day & do it all again.

Empty Spaces:After his father died he carried his life more gently & left an empty space for the birds & other creatures.

You're the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we'd know each other a long time.

We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.

I hope someday you see this is all life wants: for you to be your own kind of beautiful & not the kind that makes you forget who you are.