Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair

Without stitches, you just have rags. And we are not rags.

Discipline, I have learned, leads to freedom, and there is meaning in freedom.

Thread your needle, make a knot, find one place on the other piece of torn cloth where you can make one stitch that will hold. And do it again. And again. And again.

Sewing is a finger-and-heart equivalent of putting one foot in front of the other.

when something ghastly happens, it is not helpful to many people if you say that it’s all part of God’s perfect plan, or that it’s for the highest good of every person in the drama, or that more will be revealed, even if that is all true.

They taught me that being of service, an ally to the lonely and suffering, a big-girl helper to underdogs, was my best shot at happiness. They taught me that most of my good ideas were not helpful, and that all of my ideas after ten p.m. were especially unhelpful. They taught me to pay attention, but not so much attention to my tiny princess mind.

Love is the question: How can it possibly be enough this time, in the face of such tragedy, loss or evil? And it is the answer: It will be.