We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.

You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

I would welcome a friendship with Lynne Hinton. I would welcome an invitation to sit down at her table, but mostly I would welcome her next book.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams.

Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the stateof victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, "they" don't want me, "they" accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, "they" don't deserve me.