Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.

I don't want to go to Peru. "How do you know? You've never been there." I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.

Heroes rarely look the way we draw them in our minds: attractive, imposing figures with rippling muscles and strong chins. More times than not they are humble beings, small and flawed. It is only their spirits that are beautiful and strong.

To choose the path is to choose the destination, but sometimes it seems that the path is under our feet even before we know we're walking.

Life is what happens to us while we're planning something else.

So much of young adult literature has turned dark, almost pathological. It's almost as if there is a race to see who can be the most dysfunctional.

Forgiveness does not require us to close our eyes but rather to truly open them.