Sometimes when I watch my dog, I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just IS a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make both her and me happy. It makes me wonder if that was the intention for man, to chase sticks and ducks, to name animals, to create families, and to keep looking back at God to feed off his pleasure at our pleasure.

If what you are doing is important, you will encounter resistance. If what you are doing isn't important it will be easy.

I often learn more about myself from listening to the life story of a friend than I do reflecting on my own story.

Great writers know what to cut out. It's the same in life. Clear ambitions. Clear relationships. This is the stuff of good story.

Imagine, a Being with a mind as great as God's, with feet like trees and a voice like rushing wind, telling you that you are His cherished creation.

No love is conditional. If love is conditional, it’s just some sort of manipulation masquerading as love.

I think understanding your life as a story is a really terrific way of kind of knowing where you are and knowing who you are.