Quotes from Sue Monk Kidd

an acron grew into an oak tree, didn't it?

contemplate the fertility I hope for in my fifties and beyond—the regeneration of my creativity, the refinement of my spirituality, a new relationship with my body, the rediscovery of my daughter, indeed an inner culmination I cannot fully articulate to myself—I realize it cannot be plotted, orchestrated, controlled, and forced to bloom.

But he was Jesus, and I was Ana. I wasn't ready to let go of my animosity toward Judas. I would do so in time, but right now it saved me. It left less room inside for pain.

Don't look away. Terrible things will happen now. Unbearable things. Bear it anyway.

It can only germinate naturally out of my experience . . . or not.

What most sets you apart is the spirit in you that rebels and persists. It isn't the largeness in you that matters most, it's your passion to bring it forth.

Yaltha is summed up in these two lines from the novel: "Her mind was an immense feral country that spilled its borders. She trespassed everywhere

I will think only of him. I will give him more than my presence; I will give him the full attention of my heart. That would be my parting gift to him. I would go with him to the end of his longings.

To create newness you have to cover the soul and let grace rise.

the stethoscope in little David's ears. "Can you hear that?" I asked. "What do you suppose that is?" He frowned for a moment as if he were lost in the wonder of the strange tapping in his chest. Then he broke out in a grin and startled me by saying, "Is that Jesus knocking?

I took a deep breath and gazed up at him. "Jesus." His head slumped toward his shoulder and I saw he was looking at me. He didn't speak, nor did I, but I told myself later that everything that had ever passed between us was present then, that it was hidden somewhere among the suffering

Now that she was gone, they loved her a lot better.

We're all yearning for a wedge of sky, aren't we?

I was crying for the vast imbalance, the heart that had been lost, the rejection of the earth and body, the oppression and diminishment of things considered feminine. It was a suffering with, a despair I felt on behalf of something much larger than myself.

It is finished," Jesus said. There was a sound like a rush of wings in the blackish clouds, and I knew his spirit had left him. I imagined it like a great flock of birds, soaring, scattering, coming to rest everywhere.

I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth.

My aunt's mouth was a wellspring of thrilling and unpredictable utterances.

May Sarton novel, The Reckoning, Ella writes to her friend Laura, "Do you suppose growing up always means diluting [our] fierce purpose for the sake of others?"4

hereby certify that on this day, 26 November 1803, in the city of Charleston, in the state of South Carolina, I set free from slavery, Hetty Grimké, and bestow this certificate of manumission upon her. Sarah Moore Grimké

I let my fingers brush the inside of his elbow. Then I dampened the towel and wiped the dirt and blood from his hands, arms, chest, and face, from the coils of his ears and the creases in his neck, all the while falling and falling, slamming into myself, into the boundless pain.

But seeing such truth can be dangerous. Philosopher Mary Daly reminds us, "It isn't prudent for women to see all of this. Seeing means that everything changes: the old identifications and the old securities are gone."21 The question, she says, is whether women can forgo prudence in favor of courage. That was the question that followed me as I made my way into the new year.

He will deliver Jesus to the Romans," I whispered. Saying the words, I felt like I was falling off the edge of the world. During the time we'd been in Egypt, I'd stored away a thousand tears, and I let them loose now. Yaltha pulled my head to her shoulder and let me sob my fear, helplessness, and fury.

Every day I took some time outside where I forged new connections with the animals in my yard, including the spiders who came to spin at night, the plants, trees, and mosses, the sky shifting with the seasons. Such moments grounded me. They caused me to feel the slow rhythm of the earth, to surrender to it and to honor my own natural rhythms. And in such awareness there is always healing. Ultimately nature heals because it reminds us that as humans, we are nature.

will have to learn how to let life be life with its unbearable finality . . . just be what it is.