The Book of Longings

by Sue Monk Kidd

I am the first and the last I am she who is honored and she who is mocked I am the whore and the holy woman I am the wife and the virgin I am the mother and the daughter I am she . . . Do not be afraid of my power . . . I am the knowledge of my name I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name

To be ignored, to be forgotten, this was the worst sadness of all.

“A man’s holy of holies contains God’s laws, but inside a woman’s there are only longings.”

“Write what’s inside here, inside your holy of holies.”

If God were a wife, she would have acted sooner. It took a year for him to take mercy on me.”

It isn’t meekness I need, it’s anger.”