You have to speak your dream out loud.

That to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages--becomes a metaphor for all of life's most meaningful endeavors.

How seriously can I take myself? I'm just one of six billion people, right?

Even when all the paperwork-a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns-clearly indicates you're an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you're still somebody's daughter.

I am an average mother in almost every way, so yes, much to my regret, I do yell at my children.

I envy my dad and his faith. I envy all people who have someone to beseech, who know where they're going, who sleep under the fluffy white comforter of belief.

Appreciation is the purest,strongest form of love. It is the outward-bound kind of love that asks for nothing and gives everything.