That's what we're all sort of trying to do in our lives - to make the simplest things work out the best.

To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.

When it comes to women, get your life together first. Put on your own oxygen mask first. Figure out who you are. Mature. And then go find somebody to share that life with.

We were taught to be dependable, responsible, the top of our classes at school, the most organized and efficient babysitters in town, the very miniature models of our hardworking farmer/nurse mother, a pair of junior Swiss Army knives, born to multitask.

I don't think you can say that feminism has made women critical of marriage because women have been critical of marriage for centuries.

Nobody wants to do it - not real change, not soul change, not the painful molecular change required to truly become who you need to be. Nobody ever does real transformation for fun. Nobody ever does it on a dare. You do it only when your back is so far against the wall that you have no choice anymore.

he was still my romantic hero and I was still his living dream