Much of today’s social and climate justice culture focuses on change—yet often skips over the loss that comes with it. It’s okay to grieve what we’re leaving behind, even if it was flawed. It’s okay to feel conflicted. There’s a call for a softer approach to change—one that makes space for paradox, complexity, and the full spectrum of our emotions.

Can we agree to re-integrating plants and animals as they were evolved to live together? We can do this by promoting integrated organic farms, as well as by regreening desertified land. The clear energy efficiency of doing so will actually mitigate climate change much better than simply going vegan—and going vegan will still be just as available an option, side by side with other diets.

Most people think of memoir as a recounting of what we already know about our lives. But, in fact, what we already know is only the beginning of the journey of what I call purposeful memoir.

Mother’s Day 1972: It was my First Communion and, like all good Catholic girls, I was decked out in my white dress and veil, hands folded in prayer, and head bowed as a sign of my unworthiness. I stepped forward to receive my first taste of the consecrated host, and I was forever changed.

...The car is now standing still. I smell the disaster before I see it. A smell of fuel and burnt steel. Where are the kids? Not in the car. I look for them on the highway. I find their bodies. I take care of them until ambulances arrive. While running from one child to another, I discover strength in me.