The problem is acceptance, which is something we're taught not to do. We're taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate u….

The clipping said forgiveness meant that God is for giving, and that we are here for giving too, and that to withold love or blessings is to be compl….

There is ecstasy in paying attention..

Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you..

Here's how I became myself: mess, failure, mistakes, disappointments, and extensive reading; limbo, indecision, setbacks, addiction, public embarrass….

It is hard to remember that you are a cherished spiritual being when you're burping up apple fritters and Cheetos..

You are desperate to communicate, to edify or entertain, to preserve moments of grace or joy or transcendence, to make real or imagined events come a….

The solution is always spiritual, and it almost never has anything to do with the problem ... laughter is carbonated holiness..

My friend Terry says that when you need to make a decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don’t know what to do, just do one thing or the other,….

Some people have a thick skin and you don’t. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this w….

Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul..

Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen….

I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirste….

I went to Goucher College in Maryland for the best possible reasons - to learn - but then I dropped out at 19 for the best possible reasons - to beco….

Very few writers really know what they are doing until they have done it..

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns..

Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks..

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers..

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the….

I'm here to be me, which is taking a great deal longer than I had hoped..

My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him. I had some sort of gift and when it came time to try to ….