When a person you love moves by you with flat eyes that will not see you, it is a shock to believe it.

There are aspects of love that I once undervalued. Kindness. Having a sort of honor when love is on the table.

Between children and parents there is a difficulty of seeing each other simply as people.

I would have fallen in love with you anywhere.

...[She] felt as if she were both a stranger to herself and more herself than she'd ever been.

The word dysfunction has, I think, served its purpose and now has lost its meaning. Every family, like every person, is imperfect, after all. The idea that there is a family somewhere who functions, is an odd concept. In my youth I was running from my family to try to find out who I was-their influence distracted me. Now I see what a powerful hold they have, no matter what.

...it occurred to her how some people continued through no design of one's own to be in one's life while others might initially enter in a sort of blaze and seem to change everything but then might not stay around.