Each year, Gracie Henderson moons a thousand strangers, collects their shocked faces in an annual photo album.

The trees were friendly, they gave me rest and shadowed refuge. Slipping through them, I felt safe and competent. My whole body was occupied. I had little energy to think or worry.

Beneath hot sun, desert roses bloomed. Under cold moon, I still refused to.

Water was liquid silver, water was gold. It was clarity—a sacred thing. Drinking was no longer something to take for granted. I’d never needed to consider water before.

There was so little I wanted to carry. Packing my backpack took me all of four minutes

The bravest thing I ever did was leave there. The next bravest thing I did was come back, to make myself heard.

I’d believed I needed to be steady in myself before I could function with others—but surviving alone no longer felt like a good way either.

I realized that the most empowering important thing was actually simply taking care of myself.

I was promising myself strength.I had to write it, say it, make the effort and fake it before I actually believed I could do it.

I was the director of my life, it was already true, and I would soon lead myself to my dreamed-of destinations.It was the task of my one thousand miles of solitude.

I no longer needed to peel myself of my skin, or to hide. To Dash the colorless ephemeral things that existed just beneath my surface were as vivid as the beauty marks he traced on my cheek.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

Handcuffs weigh much more than gravestones.(from "Gratitude")

Self-love is so monogamous that no one is going to take the trouble to break the affair up for you.

We dont make mistakes. We have happy accidents.

The kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you!

We live in a society that feeds on criticism. It is so easy to find fault, and to resist doing so requires much discipline.

I remind myself that no one day of writing matters all that much. A story is built somewhat like a stalactite - one little drip of mud and grit at a time.

I held him close and said nothing, all the while telling him silently that he was loved. Oh, but he was loved.

Film is not very practical. The new world goes faster, and digital is very fast.

If you believe it and desire it, you can acquire it.