Mark Twain said that Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before. - Anne Lamott

I don’t know why life isn’t constructed to be seamless and safe, why we make such glaring mistakes, things fall so short of our expectations, and our hearts get broken and out kids do scary things and our parents get old and don’t always remember to put pants on before they go out for a stroll. I don’t know why it’s not more like it is in the movies, why things don’t come out neatly and lessons can’t be learned when you’re in the mood for learning them, why love and grace often come in such motley packaging.

anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.

Grief ends up giving you the two best things: softness and illumination.