Read A Thousand Books, And Your Words

I Think Sometimes As An Adult, You Take People For What They Do, And What They Are Now, Instead Of The Whole Picture Of Their Lives.

Mama Used To Tell Us A Story About A Cicada Sitting High In A Tree. It Chirps And Drinks In Dew, Oblivious To The Praying Mantis Behind It. The Mantis Arches Up Its Front Leg To Stab The Cicada, But It Doesn't Know An Oriole Perches Behind It. The Bird Stretches Out Its Neck To Snap Up The Mantis For A Midday Meal, But Its Unaware Of The Boy Who's Come Into The Garden With A Net. Three Creatures—the Cicada, The Mantis And The Oriole—all Coveted Gains Without Being Aware Of The Greater And Inescapable Danger That Was Coming.

The Greatest Calling Of All Is To Have A Literary Life.

People Say You Need To Be Strong, Smart, And Lucky To Survive Hard Times, War, A Natural Disaster, Or Physical Torture. But I Say Emotional Abuse—anxiety, Fear, Guilt, And Degradation—is Far Worse And Much Harder To Survive.

Dreaming, Dreaming, Dreaming -- Weren't Our Dreams What Gave Us Strength, Hope, And Desire?