“To be ready does not mean it will be easy. It doesn't mean it will be smooth. It means that even when it's difficult, you have what it takes to survive.”

“A fast didn't go fast; it was the slowest thing there was. Fast meant a door shut fast, firmly. A fastness, a fortress. To fast was to hold fast to emptiness, to say no and no and no again.”

“She might be but one stitch in the tapestry, but every stitch had a purpose, and threads couldn't become art without them.”

“How my heart missed beating like this. For him. Only for him.”

“Illness isolates; the isolated become invisible; the invisible become forgotten. But the snail....the snail kept my spirit from evaporating.”

“I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one.”

“We are not saved by good deeds; we are saved for good deeds. Jesus transforms us to transform others.”

“I hate gossips. I really do. I often wonder where they get the time and effort they put into either digging or fabricating so called *facts* about others. But these ridiculous creatures are a prime example of how the self-communal can try to injure and diminish the self-that-is. Now you know where the home of the self esteem is. It is not merely within the self. It is within the self-that-is. It is not within the self in relation. This can never hold true. Any sense of self estimation you get from the communal can never hold essentially true.”