I never had a particularly strong craving to procreate, except for earlier fantasies of wanting to be Marmee in Little Women.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

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

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

Do not worry when situations get bitter. A bitter situation is a better teacher. The greatest lessons in life can least be found in comfort and much more in uncomfortable situations of life.

Remember your magic.

All my life I have longed to have a loving relationship that would last a lifetime.

He always had a chip on his shoulder that he was ready to use to kindle an argument.

It's nice to see the young ones 7, 8, 9 years old. It seems like they know you through their parents.

In five years, you're going to be blown away by the strength and diversity of Michigan's transformed economy.

I have been a waitress, and I was a damn fine waitress too, let me tell you.

Thou shalt never wash my feet.

Home would not be home to me without a lawn, and if there are, as I've recently read, twenty-five million home lawns in the United States, at least fifty million other Americans must agree with me.

I'm sorry I can't get into Scooby Doo on any level.