I did what I knew.. when I knew better, I did better

Be wary when a naked person offers you his shirt

By no amount of agile exercising of a wistful imagination could my mother have been called lenient. Generous she was; indulgent never. Kind, yes, permissive, never. In her world, people she accepted paddled their own canoes, pulled their own weight, put their own shoulders to their own plows and pushed like hell.

Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.

One must learn to care for oneself first, so that one can then dare to care for someone else.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.