Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to the end yet.

sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.