The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked. Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days.

From now on when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I planned to say, Amnesiac.

I missed Rosaleen's snoring the way you'd miss the sound of the ocean waves after you've gotten used to sleeping with them. I didn't realize how it had comforted me. Quiteness has a strange, spongy hum that can nearly break your eardrums.

I tried to imagine a church that did not support its country's wars as a matter of patriotic course and instead stood against the devastation and suffering they caused in people's lives." (from 'The Dance of the Dissident Daughter'.)

Sometimes you want to fall on your knees and thank God in heaven for all the poor news reporting that goes on in the world.

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

The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn't.