My whole life, I had been taught to read and study, to seek understanding in knowledge of history, of cultures.

To mourn is to wonder at the strangeness that grief is not written all over your face in bruised hieroglyphics. And it's also to feel, quite powerfully, that you're not allowed to descend into the deepest fathom of your grief - that to do so would be taboo somehow.

It's all too easy when talking about female gymnasts to fall into the trap of infantilizing them, spending more time worrying more about female vulnerability than we do celebrating female strength.

All love stories are tales of beginnings. When we talk about falling in love, we go to the beginning, to pinpoint the moment of freefall.

Sometimes you don't even know what you want until you find out you can't have it.

Time doesn’t obey our commands. You cannot make it holy just because it is disappearing.

The truth is, I need to experience my mother's presence in the world around me and not just in my head.