Freedom is the atmosphere in which humanity thrives. Breathe it in.

Have you ever felt as if your dreams were more memorable, more alive, than what you knew to be reality? Have your dreams ever seemed so tangible as to make you question upon waking if...

A mother is a child’s first looking glass into the world.

Chameleonesque, hobbitish, unicorned, stompled, selfishism, and unwakeable may not be real words, but you do know what they mean.

I am, for the most part, who I am because my good mother was who she was.

Misery is a river of tears that whispers my name in a constant hiss.

Don’t laugh. A girl can dream.

Life is a harsh, twisted paradox.On one hand, you wish for no pain or suffering or misery on anyone. Yet you hope to see your children grow into individuals of compassionate and kind character. And...

To love her was to taste sweet surrender. For had she not entered his life, he would have sought the wonders of both Heaven and Earth. But she surpassed them all and, by her pleasing...

When it comes to the crusty behavior of some people, give them the benefit of the doubt. They may be drowning right before your eyes, but you can’t see it. And you’d never ask someone...

A liar deceives himself more than anyone, for he believes he can remain a person of good character when he cannot.

A dreadful thing one day befell me when a horse came to stand on my toe. Having no power to remove him, I found that I could not go.An awful thing sometime later befell me...

Nothing else has the power to calm, comfort, and care for you better than home.

Oh, how clearly I see your faults! Such distinctly highlighted flaws; it’s as if the sun and moon mean to keep them illuminated in my eyes. My mind is quick to spell out a simple...

Christ was born in Bethlehem asHeaven sang with joy.Roaming shepherds came to see theInfant, swaddled boy.Several wisemen sought him out,Traveling from afar.Mary wondered, looking skywardAt a bright, new star.Sacred was the Christ child’s birth.Sacred is...

How insane we are as humans when having received a nasty offense we return the same awful offense. If given an apple found to be rotten and wormy, would we not toss it aside rather...

Every now and then I sit and watch the sun rise to remind myself how it’s done—peacefully, steadily, warmly, and in beautiful color.

Comparisons are like rigid fingers—eager to point at a subject but unwilling to grasp it.

A snake bites your ankle.Recoiling, you scream.Fearing poison, your mind slips into a dream……where a man bites your ankle.Expecting no guile, ‘Again,’ softly falls from your lips with a smile.Yet, the man and the snake...

I shall ne’er chase rainbows again, Knowing no pot o’ gold awaits at the end. My Irish treasure is not there. For ye, my love, abide with me here.

BIG books are better. There, I said it and it’s true. 

Well he didn’t treat my mother very well. He did some horrible things.””Like…” I hesitated. “Blood-whore things?””Like beating-her-up kinds of things” he replied flatly.”Oh God,” I said “That’s horrible. And she…she just let it happen?””She...

The crazy thing about poetry is how its simplicity makes it complicated.

Friendship is not about ships—no matter how big and fancy and expensive the yacht is.

This is life.Learning to love through loss. Seeking warm pockets in the bitter cold. Finding the worth of a smile on a cloudy day. Carrying the weight of the world on weary shoulders—mistakes, sins, injustices—added...

Trying to fix the shortcoming of others while ignoring your own flaws results in little if no improvement―not to mention bitter feelings. Concentrating on personal growth sets a good example and results in the improvement...

Gratitude is medicine for a heart devastated by tragedy. If you can only be thankful for the blue sky, then do so.

Laughing in the face of danger doesn’t negate the fear, it simply enables you to smile at it.

Last night I danced. My body rose from its slump for the first time since the beginning of sorrows—my fingers beckoning to the stars at arm’s length, back arching as tingles bubbled up my spine,...

I settle into my imagination so that I might be someone when the real world tells me I’m no one.

Hope is a fire more ravenous than the flames of temptation. For if only a portion of it poisons your veins, it is enough to make you stand against ridiculous odds again and again and...

I finally figured out the big, elusive secret to weight loss. Don’t eat! Who knew?

A little here and a little there will always accumulate, so why be surprised when steady, small steps take you to great places?

Seemingly insignificant choices are like seemingly trivial seeds. Once planted, they root and grow and spread into something tremendous. Imagine the prickly weeds some choices amount to over time and be careful not to plant...

If people were kinder, the world might cease weeping.

I’m convinced that whatever contains human emotions is composed of the most fragile material, for it can shatter unpredictably and without effort. And yet it is a resilient marvel as well, able to mend instantly...

Believing in yourself means more than simply believing in your own ultimate success; it means believing you will survive failures, disappointments, rejections, and criticism but still persist.

Christmas, when observed with the right spirit, still has the power to call miracles from Heaven to Earth.

The fact is, the man who’d begotten me didn’t want me. In his eyes I should never have been born. And perhaps that would’ve been best. As it was, my existence had proven to be...

There are no real start-overs, only start-from-heres.

The least effort is the feat most likely to be accomplished.

I write so others might contemplate things that are out of the ordinary. I write to make people feel—to cause laughter and tears and anger at injustice. I write so the world will imagine and...

Dare to forge your own path. Even rocks can roll.

Do it again.Play it again. Sing it again. Read it again. Write it again. Sketch it again. Rehearse it again. Run it again. Try it again.Because again is practice, and practice is improvement, and improvement...

Though it pained me, I gave in. Why was it that I repeatedly succumbed to the first whisper of a promised maybe? How did the enticer, hope, always find my heart unguarded? There was no...

True love asks no question of the heart. It knows with surety.

There are days when writing is within my power and a story unfolds along a course I’ve already chosen. And then there are days when the words breathe on their own and take me by the...

One way or another, I think we are all destined to learn the same lessons in life. Universal truths are universal truths. They cannot be changed. 

From good examples we learn how to be. From bad examples we learn how not to be. An observant and willing student can learn from any circumstance.

Life is the clay from which dreams are molded.