Ruth Shipman

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou

“The Old Poets Of China

Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.”
― Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
― Zora Neale Hurston

“My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone.”
― Anne Lamott