In my dream the angel shrugged and said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination. And then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.

Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero.

I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my children & I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.

Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.

Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable & fall asleep & miss your life.

I hope someday you see this is all life wants: for you to be your own kind of beautiful & not the kind that makes you forget who you are.

There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.

If you hold on to the handle, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you just let the wind carry you.

I've always like the time before dawn because there's no one around to remind me who I'm supposed to be, so it's easier to remember who I am.

Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.

Believe you know all the answers, and you know all the answers. Believe you're a master, and you are.

Managing in-home nursing is not always easy. It can be terribly frustrating sometimes, and it can take a while to feel like everything is under control, but success is possible.

Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.

An atheist waving a cross at a vampire was a truly pitiful sight.

Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear. Heroes just react to it differently.

I feel like you have to tell people who you are, but you don't have to be disrespectful about it. But you also don't have to be a shrinking violet.

I feel energized walking off stage.

If you allow for the possibilities of something better, you move toward it instinctively.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

My family is as far from a stage family as you could ever possibly find.