Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know us as we are.

Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world.

Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know us as we are.

Laundry, liturgy and women's work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether we perceive them as drudgery or essential, life-supporting work, do not define who we are as women or as human beings.

If we are lucky, we can give in and rest without feeling guilty. We can stop doing and concentrate on being.

We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.

I've come to see conspiracy theories as the refuge of those who have lost their natural curiosity and ability to cope with change.