"The experience we did not choose, which we would have given anything to avoid, has made us different, has made us better. Through it we have learned the lesson that no one studies willingly, the hard, slow lesson of Sophocles and Shakespeare--that one grows by suffering. And that too is Jessy's gift. I write not what fifteen years past I would have not have thought possible to write: that is today I were given the choice, to accept the experience, with everything that it entails, or to refuse the bitter largesse, i would have to stretch out my hands--because out of it has come, for all of us, an unimagined life. And it will not change the last word of the story. It is still love." --Clara Claiborne Park, The Siege, A Family's Journey Into the World of an Autistic ... [Continue Reading]

"Both Bud and I already feel depleted by the conversation we haven't yet had." --Diana Abu-Jaber, The Language of Baklava

Tell me about a conversation you haven't yet had, one that is pressing on you, one you wish you could have, but for some reason, can't.

"The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family far too small." --Mother Teresa

Share an experience in which you found this statement to be true—or false.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which people in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand." --Henri Nouwen

Tell me about a time this was true in your life.