My theory is this: Women falter when they're called on to be highly self-conscious about their talents. Not when they're called on to enact them.

A mother is the portal by which you enter the world.

There is no single way of grieving. But research suggests that there are some broad similarities among grievers.

I think about my mother every day. But usually the thoughts are fleeting - she crosses my mind like a spring cardinal that flies past the edge of your eye: startling, luminous, lovely... gone.

One of the grubby truths about a loss is that you don't just mourn the dead person, you mourn the person you got to be when the lost one was alive. This loss might even be what affects you the most.

I have seen that grief can be very different for different people. While the range of emotions experienced is similar, the way we deal with those emotions isn't, necessarily.

Loss is so paradoxical: It is at once enormous and tiny.