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A mother's body remembers her babies-the folds of soft flesh, the softly furred scalp against her nose. Each child has it's own entreaties to body and...more

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He lifts her breasts, which fit perfectly into his hands, though he knows this is no promise that he gets to keep them. A million things you can't hav...more

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There was a roaring in my ears and I lost track of what they were saying. I believe it was the physical manifestation of unbearable grief.

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You can’t replace people you love with other people…But you can trust that you’re not going to run out of people to love.

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When something extraordinary shows up in your life in the middle of the night, you give it a name and make it the best home you can.

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In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing...more

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Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

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She has changed in this way that motherhood changes you, so that you forget you ever had time for small things like despising the color pink.

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But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.

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What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from achieving personal perfection but from understanding ...more

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It's the same struggle for each of us, and the same path out: the utterly simple, infinitely wise ultimately defiant act of loving one thing and then ...more

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That means you're my kid," I explained, "and I'm your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so.

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Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember.

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Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember. Thi...more

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A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out. You examine every turn of flesh for precocity,...more