But you have to remember…that you can’t run from unhappiness. You just take it with you.

There is an element of selfishness to this, I suppose. It feels pretty good to be able to so quickly help someone. That is, after all, one of the great emotional payoffs of medicine. That...

Judge me if you must, but keep in mind how very little pleasure I could have possibly derived from a one-thrust sex session, a quickie in a closet, and a come-free drunken hookup. If anything,...

I was always aware that Jack loved women not only for their bodies but for the stories that came into being as they interacted with him–they were part of his “road,” the infinite range of...

Let us call the world to come together – every child, every woman and every man. Letus draw a bigger picture, one that enters every home, every heart and brings togetherevery voice.Let us listen to...

There occurs the beautiful feeling that only humanity together is the true human being, and that the individual can be cheerful and happy only if he has the courage to feel himself in the Whole.

Betrayal is sacred when the heart can encompass the whole.

You know, everybody’s ignorant, just on different subjects.

I am in the unthinkable situation that people cannot bear to contemplate.

Courage is just dreams with shoes on.

Aye, Sir. Course laid in” is a seriously sweet gig, but when I was a teenager, it sucked.

…my sisters are tough. Our strength is in our laughter (Dan)

God wants to take the fears that you and I are holding onto with both hands. He throws them aside, effortless, and then takes our empty hands in His and fills them with his love....

Every day is a new beginning, the building of a habit. Every action is a step in some direction. There is no pause in living.

You can only move if you are actually in the moment. You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.

it’s been a long time since i’ve thought about that night, that wonderful raucous night. I can still see the president s surprise and amusement while opening gifts. I can still hear the music, the...

I looked out again at the rising moon and I let the weight of my day, my week, lift away with the rushing wind as I was blown into the depths of myself.

For now I sit on my final island of the present as my radius of memory shrinks; lost already are the islands of work, of old friendships…Other islands fade as I brood upon them.

Understanding the Way of Story as a sacred pattern and a living event. Story can reveal a spiritual path and or the way to healing. Stories become the foundation of health, peacebuilding and vision. Learning...

For the first time I realized adults could back themselves into corners so remote that love, or its memory, could no longer reach them.

It’s the only way anything will change. Because we are both mother and child, cause and effect, villain and victim

If it comes out black, its Darwin’s and if it comes out white its Ray’s.” This is how things were done in the trailer park.

Standing in the shower, I feel something on the back of my leg that turns out to be my ass.

I would not say I am looking for God. Or, I am not looking for God precisely. I am not seeking the God I learned about as a Catholic child, as an 18-year-old novice in...

I learned that being a mother takes a lot of energy.

Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well,...

They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

I’m ready for the day when Mom loves me too much to keep me, and for every other person who will someday see that I’m not worth holding on to.

I stood in the library admiring the huge book collection. There was something inherently calming about being surrounded by books, even their smell and texture was comforting.

Writing is my passion. Words are the way to know ecstasy. Without them life is barren. The poet insists, language is a body of suffering and when you take up language you take up the...

The God I serve is able to save us both. To give us the winning lottery ticket so all our money problems will go away. To mend our broken hearts. To bring us close to...

If a writer starts worring about what he or she has left out or forgotten, they might not be able to write even a single line.

My story begins with a question.

Now that young girls like my twelve-year-old friend Mai are being exposed to modern Western women like me through crowds of tourists, they’re experiencing those first critical moments of cultural hesitation. I call this the...

I’d very much like to ‘conclude’ something from this experiment. Or that it should raise a question in my mind, and a commitment to get to the bottom of the matter, to investigate, to come...

I’m no expert, no natural-born talent, definitely no guru. As you’ll soon learn, only through a colossal experiment in trial and error did I reach the sexual summit. Although I own up to having worn...

Mary [Tyler Moore] was absolutely brilliant… She is a fabulous actress. She can do anything.

it’s not about what to think,it’s about how to think.

For the longest time I was so sick I didn’t have the strength or inclination to read, but looking at my books stacked up on the bedside table was comforting, like having old friends sitting...

I’ve had cancer twice and if I had to pick one fate for you, cancer or fertility problems-I’d pick cancer.

If you want help in starting to write memoirs, you don’t want to fall into the clutches of a famous writer who has been hired to teach at a writing workshop solely because of his...

Remove yourself from this, go someplace new, and everything will be better.” Two years into our Florida stint, my mother pulled a geographic as radical as the move from Rochester. The new plan was to...

Baby, you’ve got to roll with the punches.

I do not NEED a man. That was an impossible thought when I married John thirty years ago. It was unimaginable even seven years ago. I finally understand why lasting love has eluded me: the...

Who thought up the dumb idea to arrange the memoir section in the bookstore by subject?

Free love, man, Free Love! Which, by the way, was the single greatest concept a young man has ever heard. About three years late, women got wise an my frustration returned to normal levels.

Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross.

She had always thought the word ‘pheromones’ made it sound as though molecules were floating in the air, shaped like little fluted horns, ready to attach themselves to the nearest target. Microscopic Edison phonographs flying...

I want my heart to be the thin place. I don’t want to board a plane to feel the kiss of heaven. I want to carry it with me wherever I go. I want my...

I had lots of appointments, many places to go, and I needed a lot of rest; the art of constructively selling oneself requires much tender self-care