“Take your future into your own hands. Make it happen. Life is a coloring book, but you have the pens.” ​ – Sophie Kinsella Sadly author Sophie Kinsella died a bit less than a year ago, leaving behind a bookshelf of funny, irreverent and at times profound novels. Thank you, Sophie, for hours of reading…

Tenderness is the most modest form of love. It appears wherever we take a close and careful look at another being, at something that is not our ‘self.’” ​ – Olga Tokarczuk

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.” ― Émile Zola Thanks to my cousin, Joice, on Facebook for this quote. Joice and I are actually the first cousins of several different first cousins. I’d say that’s…

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?” Bryan Stevenson

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain I just got home from a two week trip to France and Spain, part of which was on a river boat on the Rhône.  The more I see of the rest of the world, the less likely I am to think that my own…

“Your legacy, in some ways, is what you love and what you’ve asked other people to love alongside you.” ​ – Hanif Abdurraoqib

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” ​ – Oprah Winfrey

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. -Wendell…

Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you,” – 14th-century Persian Sufi poet, Hafiz

“America’s diversity offers so much richness and opportunity. Take a chance, won’t you? Knock down the fences that divide. Tear apart the walls that imprison. Reach out, freedom lies just on the other side.” ​ – Thurgood Marshall