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.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

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

In middle age we are apt to reach the horrifying conclusion that all sorrow, all pain, all passionate regret and loss and bitter disillusionment are self-made

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.

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

But in order to have an adult faith, most of us have to outgrow and unlearn much of what we were taught about religion.