One person's trauma is another's loss of innocence.

I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere.

I am not keeping my distance because it is uncomfortable for me, but because it is uncomfortable for them.

I, um, I have this problem. I broke up with my boyfriend, you see. And I'm pretty upset about it, so I wanted to talk to my best friend. [...] The thing is, they're both you.

and another claimed it was inherited through a parent who was a carrier of the defective gene. I had always assumed the latter was the case with Claire. After all, surely a child who grew out of grief would be born with a heavy heart.

Real mothers don't just listen with humble embarrassment to the elderly lady who offers unsolicited advice in the checkout line when a child is throwing a tantrum. We take the child, dump him in the lady's cart, and say, "Great. Maybe you can do a better job." Real mothers know that it's okay to eat cold pizza for breakfast. Real mothers admit it is easier to fail at this job than to succeed.

Someone once told me that when you give birth to a daughter, you've just met the person whose hand you'll be holding the day you die.