The biggest disease of today . . . is the feeling of being unwanted.
― St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
What She Said, August 14: St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Diane Masiello
I am a writer and high school English teacher at a Catholic, all-girls private school. I began my teaching and writing career over 30 years ago, earning my Ph.D. in English Education from and first teaching at New York University. After I finished my degree work, my husband and I moved to Florida; I have taught at both Nova Southeastern University and The University of Tampa.
I left academia to raise two beautiful daughters and help care for my parents, which is when I turned to blogging to help me process my experiences. I started in 2003 with a LiveJournal entitled "Afternoons with Coffee Spoons" which I eventually translated over to Wordpress. In 2019 I was invited to join "The Gloria Sirens" blog, which gave me space to develop my voice.
Over the past few years, as I have raised teenagers and gone back to teaching, my writing has become more focused on the interplay of the Catholic faith, mystery, and storytelling. This has, in 2025, led me to return to writing exclusively for my own blog where I can more fully explore "Every Grace and Blessing" that God has bestowed upon me and those I love.
What She Said, August 13: Tara Westover
Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind. I had come to believe that the ability to evaluate many ideas, many histories, many points of view, was at the heart of what it means to self-create. –Tara Westover
What She Said, August 12: Malala Yousafzai
Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world. –Malala Yousafzai
What She Said, August 11: Abigail Adams
I’ve always felt a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic. –Abigail Adams
What She Said, August 10: Maria Montessori
Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war. –Maria Montessori
What She Said, June 14: Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
I think the history of western feminism is fraught with racism, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that and, at the same time, to say that feminism is not a western invention, that my great-grandmother in what is now south-western Nigeria is feminist.
–Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
What She Said, June 13: Roxane Gay
To have privilege in one or more areas does not mean you are wholly privileged. Surrendering to the acceptance of privilege is difficult, but it is really all that is expected . . . the acknowledgement of my privilege is not a denial of ways I have been and am marginalized, the ways I have suffered.
–Roxane Gay
What She Said, June 12: Jesmyn Ward
Protests and looting naturally capture attention. But the real rage smolders in meetings . . .
white rage doesn’t have to take to the streets and face rubber bullets to be heard. Instead, white rage has access to the courts, police, legislatures, and governors, who cast its efforts as noble . . .
–Jesmyn Ward
What She Said, June 11: Yaa Gyasi
My job is not to regulate your response to the truth. My job is to tell it.
–Yaa Gyasi
What She Said, June 10: Michelle Alexander
The fate of millions of people–indeed the future of the black community itself–may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.
–Michelle Alexander
The Gloria Sirens 