Greggory Grace

“The most important message of this book, when considering the role the government should play in reproductive choices, is that people are able to make good decisions about their bodies, their childbearing, and their lives. People understand the consequences of abortion and the consequences of ongoing pregnancy and childbirth, and they can make that decision for themselves.”
― Diana Greene Foster, The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having―or Being Denied―an Abortion

“If you read a great poem aloud - for example, "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley - and read it the way he set it up and puncuated it, what you are doing is breathing his inspired breath at the moment he wrote that poem. That breath was so powerful it can still be awakened in us over 150 years later. Taking it on is very exhilarating. That is why it is good to remember: if you want to get high, don't drink whiskey; read Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Neruda, Hopkins, Millay, Whitman, aloud and let your body sing.”
― Natalie Goldberg

“take your God back. though his songs are beautiful, his miracles are inconsistent. i want the fate of Lazarus for Renisha, want Chucky, Bo, Meech, Trayvon, Sean & Jonylah risen three days after their entombing, their ghost re-gifted flesh & blood, their flesh & blood re-gifted their children.

‘dear white america”
― Danez Smith, Don't Call Us Dead

“[It] strikes me that my morning walks are like Post-it Notes to myself, the kind my mom put on my bathroom mirror when I was a kid. Unlike hers, they convey no information—no went to Star Market, no clean up your room. They just say: look around, go slowly, feel yourself a part of something bigger than yourself. Such a Post-it on my bathroom mirror would make me cringe. But to write and read it by walking just feels practical. Without the walk, I feel as though I’ve forgotten to do something important, something without which the rest of my day will go sideways. At bottom, maybe that’s what prayer is. A kind of note to yourself, with your God looking on, written in your religion’s handwriting, to remind you of whatever you think you need to be reminded of—to remind you how to live a better life. Maybe all the major religions knew that how you started your day would effectively be a prayer anyway, that whatever you do every morning, whatever frame you give to your day, effectively becomes what you worship.”
― Howard Axelrod, The Stars in Our Pockets: Getting Lost and Sometimes Found in the Digital Age