“Being codependent means that when you die, someone else’s life passes before your eyes.”

Kids can be a pain in the neck when they’re not a lump in your throat.

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

Violets are God’s apology for February.

We can never untangle all the woes in other people’s lives. We can’t produce miracles overnight. But we can bring a cup of cool water to a thirsty soul, or a scoop of laughter to a lonely heart.

A lot of kneeling keeps one in good standing.

Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking; how to take evidence from a page, not seek a reality to substitute for it.

My karma just ran over my dogma.

Old florists never die. They just make other arrangements.

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.

Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional

I don’t have to figure out why or how or when. God has a plan, and I’m committed to it. That commitment frees me from having to worry about the details.

If we give someone a piece of bread and butter, that’s kindness, but if we put jelly or peanut butter on it, then it’s Loving Kindness.

The secret of growing younger is counting blessings, not birthdays.

Grudges are like hand grenades: it is wise to release them before they destroy you.

We can choose to gather to our hearts the thorns of disappointment, failure, loneliness, and dismay in our present situation. Or we can gather the flowers of God’s grace, boundless love, abiding presence, and unmatched joy. I choose to gather the flowers.

Forgiveness is a stunning principle, your ticket out of hate and fear and chaos.