Suddenly life was good, even glamorous. We were poor but didn’t know it, or maybe we did know, but we didn’t care, because my mother had stopped disappearing into her bedroom. Our apartment building was...

May I see the beauty in others without denigrating my own.

She hops expectantly into the sink. I turn on the tap for her; she laps without a glance in my direction, like a duchess so used to being ministered to that she no longer notices...

Romance blossomed over a carrier bag full of mackerel. It wasn’t exactly how I imagined it would happen; there were no sunsets, or butterflies, or birdsong, just some smelly dead fish and a slimy carrier...

When in doubt – make’em laugh.

Writing is the only way to run away from home, without ever leaving.

Love was a verb with a certain amount of energy attached to it – a daily quota – and you had to choose on whom you wanted to spend this energy. That was love. That...

Love has no demand of us but to keep practicing, to do the next hard thing. Love says, Come dear. Take the next step.

From one end to the other I have identified with various forms of spirituality. I was a Jew, then a God-hater. I was an atheist, then a Christian, for which I was called a traitor.

I was getting what I had always wanted, him wanting me.

Hey everyone. This is Elizabeth Stone, the one who wrote a A BOY I ONCE KNEW and BLACK SHEEP AND KISSING COUSINS. To those of you who read either one, thanks! But another Elizabeth Stone,...

Just because I am paranoid does not mean that someone is not out to get me

Yvette is a woman who looks like a church bell. Her copper body curves with purpose, angles on a chair as if from a tower overlooking a village by the sea. Her bones are strong...

I’ve heard that sometimes a version of you must die before another more enlightened version can be born. I think that’s true after watching the corpse of myself walk around.

In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.

Lesson learned: Don’t ever put a guy up on a pedestal. It’s too easy for him to tip over and fall off.

Alone, I relished the bird songs, the drone of hushed conversation from neighboring tables, and the gentle lapping of waves sliding on the shore. I didn’t feel the passage of time. There was no destination...

For me, adoption was grief in reverse.

Although my understanding of exactly how much trouble I was in grew more specific over time, as a child I surely understood enough about my condition to know it was something I’d better keep private....

You won’t be able to do this ten years from now—just leave everything behind and go.

In a world where the most consequential things happen by chance, or from unfathomable causes, you don’t look to reason for help. You consort with mysteries… They have been killed in place of you –...

Yet you stand, too ashamed to run, too fearful to embrace. God I see so much ofwhat I love in that face.

Sometimes to move forward, you have to find yourself backwards.

We mask our needs as the needs of others.

In my mother’s book, a vegetarian is somebody who is not concern with his or her diet and health. “Someone who prefer bush and grass, as if they is sheeps and cows, is somebody who...

It is the capacity to feel consuming grief and pain and despair that also allows me to embrace love and joy and beauty with my whole heart. I must let it all in.

Not to put too fine a point on it, if you want the dream, if you want to sculpt the magic inside your head and heart for real, if you want the recognition, if you...

What can we make of the inexpressible joy of children? It is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old who wakes to her own energy and the brisk challenge of the world....

Each person in the group said something except for me. My silence became noticed. About halfway through the meeting I started to think, I’ve got to talk. Today, I’ve got to talk. Fear racked me...

It’s nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it’s around me somewhere, but I just can’t feel it.

I know of other mothers who have children with disabilities,and right away they loved them and decided to fight for them.That isn’t my story.

Had I glimpsed just a little of the suffering I would witness and the heartbreak I would endure, I would have fled in the other direction…But I could not foresee any of these things…And many...

Sometimes I dream that I’m writing a memoir. A memoir would just be the thing to keep me in the hearts and memories of my adoring public.

After college I got a job and started working. This new career had absolutely nothing to do with my degree.

Most memoirs about alcoholism, promiscuity, and addiction are deep, sobering tales full of scars that will never heal and include alarming statistics and reflection about recovery.This is not one of those memoirs.

…setiap kita punya keinginan, apa pun itu. Karena mimpi inilah yang membuat kita punya harapan. Dan segala keinginan dan mimpi mampu kita wujudkan. Tinggal bagaimana usaha dan kerja keras kita untuk meraih cita dan asa...

…the clear water the color of deeply steeped tea, surrounded by cattails and gracile grasses.

Her legacy was not–would not be–this disease. Phyllis Marie Unold Avery told us stories…It is my promise to her that for as long as I am able, I will recognize, restory, and remember.

It starts with a single breath and the present moment, but where it takes you is into the vast radiance of your true nature, into a magical, spacious life.

Angel Band” by Johnny Cash and sat down at the bar,ordered a soda, you wanted a whiskey on the rocks.We saw the coal miner who moved here from West Virginiaknocking back liquor like I drink...

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...

To tell a tale so great as to tear the soul inside out”Sara Niles, Torn From the Inside Out

A distinction must be made between that writing which enables us to hold on to life even as we are clinging to old hurts and wounds and that writing which offers to us a space...

The shadow is dark and the woods are cold, but they are not endless. No matter how lost you are now, you are not lost forever. You are findable.Love just keeps on looking. Love is...

Benar atau tidak, jujur atau tidak, memoir ialah sebuah prosa peribadi, karya bukan cereka yang mesti dibaca secara kritis untuk menentukan kebenarannya.

Why should I be frightened of dying? I did not know what death truly was; no one did. Who had made dying a bad word? Yes, it was universally considered awful—unwanted, painful, feared—because when it...

How many people have I heard claim their children as the greatest accomplishment and comfort of their lives? It’s the thing they can always lean on during a metaphysical crisis, or a moment of doubt...

Scars are something of a body’s memoir.

The clown was an evil one. They’re either good or bad, and this one was definitely the latter.

I’m often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I’m...