I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers.

When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?

Like faith, marriage is a mystery. The person you're committed to spending your life with is known and yet unknown, at the same time remarkably intimate and necessarily other. The classic seven-year itch may not be a case of familiarity breeding ennui and contempt, but the shock of having someone you thought you knew all too well suddenly seem a stranger. When that happens, you are compelled to either recommit to the relationship or get the hell out. There are many such times in a marriage.

Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.

The High Plains, the beginning of the desert West, often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them.

Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.

Friendship is an art, and very few persons are born with a natural gift for it.