When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.

Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs--those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms.

It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.

In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.

Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react