Vanessa Ya Lopez

“And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.”
― Michelle Obama, Becoming

“The hot air was pregnant with jasmine and eucalyptus.”
― Tembi Locke, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

“There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.”
― Matsuo Basho

“Children are compelled to give meaning to what is happening to them. When there is no clear explanation, they make one up; the intersection of trauma and the developmentally appropriate egocentrism of childhood often leads a little kid to think, I made it happen.”
― Nadine Burke Harris, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity—A Transformative Guide to Understanding Childhood Trauma and Health