But love wasn't about sacrifice, and it wasn't about falling short of someone's expectations. By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. All any of us wanted, really, was to know that we counted. That someone else's life would not have been as rich without us here.

If you've lived through it, you already know there are no words that will ever come close to describing it, and if you didn't - you will never understand.

Every life has a soundtrack.

I knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. You didn't get past something like that, you got through it.

I'm grateful for my children, who are slowly emerging to become their own wonderful, interesting, compassionate young adults - which makes me believe that along the way I must have done something right.

What if what you know isn’t what people want to hear?

Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.