Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver.

Every now and then we enter the presence of the numinous and deduce for an instant how we're formed, in what detail the force that infuses every petal might specifically run through us, wishing only to lure us into our full potential.

If dysfunction means that a family doesn't work, then every family ambles into some arena in which that happens, where relationships get strained or even break down entirely. We fail each other or disappoint each other. That goes for parents, siblings, kids, marriage partners - the whole enchilada.

I'm doomed to act like myself, even when it's inconvenient!

I don't think I look like the pope's favorite Catholic - at least not under close scrutiny.

Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild.

It turned out to be impossible for me to 'run away' in the sense other American teenagers did. Any movement at all was taken for progress in my family.