
None of us know what we are capable of until we are tested. -Elizabeth Blackwell
Diane Masiello is a part-time writer and a full-time mom, wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Like many who are currently part of the “sandwich generation,” – those who still have kids at home but are also taking care of aging parents—she is also trying to find the time to carve out some space for her own passions. In her earlier life she earned a Ph.D. in Education from New York University, and worked as an Instructor of English, then Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tampa. In 2003 she left academia to raise her two daughters—the longest, hardest job she’s ever held, and the most rewarding. During her time in academia she edited and contributed to a variety of academic publications, but her greatest joy was the publication of her first short fantasy story, “The Sunspot,” in CrossTime Science Fiction Anthology Vol. II. She has her own blog, “Afternoons with Coffee Spoons,” which started as a mommy blog but ended when she realized her daughters had become old enough that writing about them without their permission seemed invasive. She has just completed her first young adult fantasy novel, Keeper, and is starting on the maze-like road toward publication. She is thrilled to be a part of The Gloria Sirens and looks forward to the conversations her blog posts may inspire.
None of us know what we are capable of until we are tested. -Elizabeth Blackwell
In a sick society, women who have difficulty fitting in are not ill but demonstrating a healthy and positive response. -Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment. -Maxine Hong Kingston
Things falling apart is a kind of testing but also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together and they fall apart. The healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy. -Pema Chodron
Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love. -St. Therese of Lisieux
The opposite of faith is not doubt. It’s certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns -Anne Lamott
Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learned not to trust. -Madeline L’Engle
Your best and wisest refuge from all your troubles is in your science. -Ada Lovelace
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. -Marie Curie
Here’s the thing, Mom. You’ve been living on catastrophe island. But it’s uninhabitable. It’s not conducive to life. It’s time for you to get off the island.