You don’t need to retire to a cloister or the desert for years on end to experience a true dark night; you don’t even have to be pursuing any particular “spiritual” path. Raising a challenged...

One thing is certain, whatever choices we make: we will not miss out on some critical purgation by seeking treatment for depression or any other form of physical suffering. If we are ripe for what...

The depression was not incapacitating. It made it hard to take a lot of my suburban life seriously, but that was inextricably mingled with a growing consciousness of the larger brutalities of the world. Ethiopian...

I think the best fiction is about the absolute irrepressibility of love in the face of every circumstance to the contrary. Even in someone as dark, on the face of it, as Faulkner often is,...

She forgot: it was as simple as that. She just loved being with the guy. Possibly enough that not even their own wedding could screw it up.

It was his wedding day, and then it was any day; it was nothing, and then it was forever.

The first one to bed always lit the candle, and the last one turned out the lamp….The tradition had seen them through quite a bit by now, and Rebecca had come to love the candlelight,...

We are born to love as we are born to die, and between the heartbeats of those two great mysteries lies all the tangled undergrowth of our tiny lives. There is nowhere to go but...

She said, “Well, that’s right, she’s going to heaven very soon. And now it’s time for us to say good-bye to her and tell her how much we love her.”Mary martha nodded and looked at...