She tried to think of what to say to make it all better again, or at least the way it was before she'd made her confession, though she didn't regret having confessed. Perhaps that was what had been wrong with her all along. Now that the lie wasn't between them anymore, maybe she could love him again.

Let yourself be gutted. Let it open you. Start here.

I am, as they say, the classic starving artist.

The only way out of a hole is to climb out.

Each night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally Id see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that I'd realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real.

I had to go on without my mother, even though I was suffering terribly, grieving her.

I walked all those miles, I learned all those lessons. It's as if my new life was the gift I got at the end of a long struggle.