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

Success is doing the right thing for who you are.

The best things about womanhood might possibly even be the conversations. The chatting. The gabbing. The whispering. The hands-on-hips eye-rolling. The yukking-it up.

Nothing that doesn’t push you past your limits can change your life. It’s true of work, it’s true of parenting, and it’s true — a hundred times over — of love.

And despite everything I know now, I still believe, as I did when I was little, that there is an entire universe of things that my mother knows that I don't. I still believe that nothing truly bad can ever happen if my mother is around. I know it's not true. But still. It is true.

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

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