Perfection is illusory. The most spectacular of cars gets you from point A to point B no different than the most practical and inexpensive. The perfect male or female body is only as desirable as what it contains, no matter our initial sexual impulses. No matter how attractive something is, if [its] nature is ugly then no amount of wishful thinking can amend it.

When I walk
into my kitchen today,
I am not alone.
Whether we know it
or not, none of us is.
We bring fathers
and mothers and kitchen
tables, and every meal
we have ever eaten.
Food is never just food.
It’s also a way of
getting at something else;
who we are, who
we have been, and
who we want to be.

There are always the simple events of your life that you might try to convert into legend.

Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different… I claimed myself and remade my life. Only when I knew I belonged to myself completely did I become capable of giving myself to another, of finding joy in desire, pleasure in our love, power in this body no one else owns.

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

I must learn to love the fool in me — the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool.

I know
it’s hard to be reconciled
not everything is exactly
the way it ought to be
but please turn around
and step into the future
leave memories behind
enter the land of hope

She decided that she was too cold a woman to be a mistress and too stubborn to be a wife. She wanted things her way, and compromise held no charm for her; Marianna of the divided heart and soul.