We Heart YA

"Sometimes there are no good choices, and we can only do our best."

I guess maybe people who don't show their feelings might still have them.

No one ever grows poor from giving... Sharing what you have does not make you worth any less... Generosity is really just another word for love.

You will belong here. You will belong wherever you want. You will make anywhere beautiful.

It's not a contest between here and there. You don't have to choose.

She is drawing a line between us that does not need to be drawn.

Sometimes talking to Mama reminds me of a feather duster brushing dirt away from a mirror. She doesn't give you anything new, but she helps you better see what is already there.

Layla gives me the shrug the American one, the one I learned from her, the one when you don't know the answer but can't quite bring yourself to admit it. Or maybe sometimes you shrug because you do know the answer but it is too painful to say.

There is an Arabic proverb that says: She makes you feel like a loaf of freshly baked bread. It is said about the nicest kindest people. The type of people who help you rise.

I want women like Aunt Michelle to understand that it is not only women who look like them who are free who think and care about other women.

I am looking into the mirror at the image of me that I do not recognize. A stranger who I will get to know. A stranger who I am excited to meet.

I know I should choose something else, something easier, but my heart won't let me.

There is always something to be afraid of, she insists. And I know she is right, I know more than she thinks I do. But still I say, I am choosing not to be afraid.

I have learned Americans love to say you know and then stop talking. They force you to fill in the hard parts, the things they are not brave enough to say.

Lucky. I am learning how to say it over and over again in English. I am learning how it tastes -- sweet with promise and bitter with responsibility.

I wonder if it is exhausting to be a tree. To lose something, year after year, only to trust that it will someday grow back.

Whenever I see her, she is surrounded by friends who follow her around like the sea hugs the shore, drifting in and out, but always coming back.