There on the sofa, as I nursed Maxie and her eyes slid closed, I said to the girls, 'I think nursing is where kisses come from.' I had been thinking about it. Nursing had to be the place where nurturing and sweet milk and soft skin and mouths and warmth all came together and started to mean something about love. I had always assumed kissing was a learned thing, like waving bye-bye or speaking a language. But since Maxie, I'd decided that it was innate, the adult version of something we know to do from the moment we're born. All of it tied together in the cycle of life.

Be brave with your life, so others will be brave with theirs.

You don't have to be perfect to be awesome.

Maybe the past is supposed to fade-and that's actually a kindness of human memory.

We build our lives in moments, and even the ones we can't remember become the story of who we are.

Something good was happening. My life was rising from the ashes, and the sight of it left me feeling something like hopeful.

Don't let anyone convince you that love doesn't matter.