"The library made me feel safe, as if every question had an answer and there was nothing to be afraid of, as long as I could sort through another volume."
- Dee Williams
"Books had rescued me when i most needed saving... Books were smarter than me and words inspired me... to try something new, charge forward without a clear understanding of what would happen next, beca..."
"I thought: This is what the living do. And I swooned at the ordinary nature of the task and myself, at my chapped hands and square palms, at the way my wrists bent and fingers flexed inside this livin..."
"Over time, I discovered that learning new things doesn't always liberate you. Instead it makes you wonder if your pants are on backward or if the trees are holding the sky up - it makes you question a..."
"Maybe is wasn't love so much as a fear of losing everything I'd accomplished. I was afraid to let go."
"I never saw this coming - the little house was working its magic, connecting me to people and materials I never would have guessed would find their way into the picture."
"We were taught not to offer or invite aid, because, like it or not, helping is a messy, confused proposition; sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong, and sometimes you have no choic..."
"I had no idea that "letting go" would be so complicated; that it would sometimes feel liberating and other times more sorrowful and lonely. In the long run, most of it was like standing on the shore, ..."
"Change what you can, darlin'. That's my best advice."
"I went to Guatemala to help build a school but left wondering what "help" would really look like... I hadn't prepared myself for how humbled I'd feel, or how hard it would be to find my footing when w..."