We just have to accept that life is perfectly imperfect.

Our survival depends on not just what we can get in life but also what we can give.

We sit huddled together for a few minutes, just being there with one another, and it feels dangerous to me that nobody is saying anything.

I reached out and placed my hand on the book and thought maybe someday I wouldn’t need the bruises or the scars anymore. Maybe someday it would be all right for the scars to go away.

And she didn’t once say anything about this being a sin. It used to be I got the word sin slapped in my face every time I did something wrong, but come on, when you live in a sin-free family with sin-free parents and a sin-free sister, well, you can’t help but sin a little extra on their behalf.

And I was afraid because I knew I had outgrown my past before I could see a path to my future.

How it’s Done is a richly woven tale of a young woman who discovers what it really means to be an adult. This story, told with honesty and heart, held me in my seat to the very end. I have discovered a new favorite writer in Christine MacLean.

I glance at the exit across the room. I want out. The bird in my chest is crashing up against its cage. I can feel the heavy thump, thump, thump of its feverish body inside and I open my mouth, not to speak, but to let the bird out so I can breathe.

I thought it was safer and easier to be one my own. But I don’t think I was to be invisible anymore because-because it’s lonely, and I don’t want to be lonely. I don’t want to be alone.

When God’s moving his hands through your life, you had better sit up and take notice.