Families are hard partly because of expectations, that the people in them are supposed to mesh,

What other than books is inside me or nearby that can help connect with what has meaning? Prayer? Breath? Movement? Oranges? Cats? What about staring at the night sky? What about getting to a window and looking out with the attention and curiosity we see in little kids?

The medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart said that if the soul could have known God without the world, God never would have created the world.

man. It felt like there was domestic violence going on inside her, between the bully and the mother.

doing the living for me, and all I have to do is let their stories, humor, knowledge, and images—some of which I’ll never forget—flow through me, even as I forget to turn off the car when I arrive at my destination. I

At some point you experience that a body is just the shell of a person, a cocoon that’s been outgrown.

To have a few amazing friends on this side of eternity, this sometimes grotesque amusement park, is the greatest joy.

Silence is medicine.

Awareness spritzes us awake. Being awake means that we have taken off the blinders.