Betrayal of any kind is hard, but betrayal by one's religion is excruciating. It makes you want to rage and weep.

Back in the autumn I had awakened to a growing darkness and cacophony, as if something in the depths were crying out. A whole chorus of voices. Orphaned voices. They seemed to speak for all the unlived parts of me, and they came with a force and dazzle that I couldn't contain. They seemed to explode the boundaries of my existence. I know now that they were the clamor of a new self struggling to be born.

The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.

You put his brain in a bird, the bird would fly backwards" -Secret Life of the Bees

And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.

History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own.

It's something everybody wants-for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters.