To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.

While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing.

I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me... I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life... I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.

As writers we need to crack open language.

Can we walk that thin line between constant change and continuation? And in the middle of this flux, feel gratitude but not hold on? Gratitude greases the joints to let us let go, and at the same time to stop and realize we received something. Gratitude is the most developed and mature of human emotions.

The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.

Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure - just a big field to wander in.