An Invisible Thread

If you make me lunch," he said, "will you put it in a brown paper bag?...Because when I see kids come to school with their lunch in a paper bag, that means that someone cares about them. Miss Laura, can I please have my lunch in a paper bag?

An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.” —Ancient Chinese Proverb

We all want relationships that are healthy and resolved, and sometimes that simply doesn't happen. But the beauty of life is that inside these disappointments are hidden the most miraculous of blessings. What we lose and what we might have been pales against what we have.

If love is the greatest gift of all-and I believe it is- then the greatest privilege of all is to be able to love someone.

It’s something I call an invisible thread. It is, as the old Chinese proverb tells us, something that connects two people who are destined to meet, regardless of time and place and circumstance. Some legends call it the red string of fate; others, the thread of destiny.

Rituals are what ground us in our lives, what give us a sense of safety and continuity. In

But sometimes we are not drawn to that which is different from what we know and fear. Sometimes we are drawn to that which is exactly the same.

I realize some people might not understand why the paper bags were important. But to me, they showed that someone had taken the time to make me lunch. Someone had actually thought of me; someone cared about me.

the things we carry with us from childhood define who we become.

Yet I believed then and I believe now that there is something in the universe that brings people who need each other together. There is something that helps two wildly disparate people somehow forge a bond. Maybe it is precisely the thing that haunts us most that makes us reach out to others we think can provide some solace.

An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.

I consider my childhood a gift," Maurice once told me. "It happened to me so I could learn the right way to raise my children.

What we lose and what might have been pales against what we have.

All of our stories, as much as they are about anything, are about loss. And, perhaps, they are about what might have been. I wanted happy, loving parents who danced waltzes in the living room. I wanted children of my own, desperately. We all want relationships that are healthy and resolved, and sometimes that simply doesn’t happen. But the beauty of life is that inside these disappointments are hidden the most miraculous of blessings. What we lose and what might have been pales against what we have.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

But it was my father’s absences—those hours after he left and before he made it home again—that most defined my childhood and that still most define the person I’ve become.

Kids like me—we know everything that’s going on out there. We see it on TV. But we’re always on the outside looking in. We know about stuff like Christmas, but kids like me, we know we can never have it for ourselves, so we don’t think about it.

Look, neither of us is a superhero, nor even especially virtuous. When we met we were just two people with complicated pasts and fragile dreams. But somehow we found each other, and we became friends. And that, you will see, made all the difference for us both.

All I can say is, in my heart, I believe it was the only thing I could have done in that situation.

For me, having a family was not just a desire, it was the thing that was going to save me. It was my only answer to the unsolvable puzzle of my father’s cruelty—my only chance to be happy in a way I had never experienced as a child.

But I have to admit, if I am being honest, that the baggage I brought to our relationship played at least some part in causing it to end.

language his parents understood best was a discourse of violent action, not words. Morris, in particular, was a heavy drug user and an alcoholic, and coke, dope, and Wild Irish Rose easily triggered his rages. When he came home at all, it was to rail at his family with

I had to accept he might be out of my life for good-that our strange little friendship was over just as it was beginning. Yet I believed then and I believe now that there is something in the universe that brings people who need each other together.

You see," Maurice said to me, beaming, "I told you I'd get a big table someday.

and that’s when I asked her to tell me what mattered to her in life.

I could not have known that the incident she relayed to me would, in my mind, come to define Laura and the kind of person she is.

We live in a cynical world, and sometimes our cynicism gets in the way of seeing things for what they are.

Rituals are what ground us in our lives, what give us a sense of safety and continuity.

something I call an invisible thread. It is, as the old Chinese proverb tells us, something that connects two people who are destined to meet, regardless of time and place and circumstance. Some legends call it the red string of fate; others,

him how to live on the streets. The

If love is the greatest gift of all—and I believe it is—then the greatest privilege of all is to be able to love someone.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

When we met we were just two people with complicated pasts and fragile dreams.

What does it mean when society says your unfit to be a mother? Are there circumstances to be factored in before that judgement is made? What if a mother is doing the best she can in the face of crushing adversity but still doesn't measure up to society's standards? When does a mother lose her right to be a mother?

He was talented and a relentlessly hard worker and, by all rights, should have achieved the kind of success he craved, but he was too restless to stick with any one thing for too long. In time, he always found a way to sabotage himself.

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place were colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.

Because when I see kids come to school with their lunch in a paper bag, that means someone cares about them. Miss Laura, can I please have my lunch in a paper bag?

But the beauty of life is that inside these disappointments are hidden the most miraculous of blessings. What we lose and what might have been pales against what we have. I