Grace

“I couldn’t have managed it alone,” Yesiko said.
“No,” Shula replied. She pulled a bowl of challah dough from the cabinet above the stovetop and brought it to the counter to braid. “Only a surprise to you. But none of us can.” And she smiled a little at Yesiko.”
― Portia Elan, Homebound

“Wren no longer sees life as a long, linear ladder with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, she considers how life is like a spiraling trail up a mountain. Each circling lap represents a learning cycle, the same lesson at a slightly higher elevation. Wren realizes she likes to rest as much as she likes to climb. She begins to enjoy the view.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart

“Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart

“The theater hums with presence as everyone in the audience and cast alike remembers that joy and grief are human birthrights, but mostly, being alive, is everything in between.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart