They say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey.

The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss—you have gone and lost something else. But the body moves toward health. The mind, too, in steps. One step at a time. Ask a mother who has just lost a child, How many children do you have? "Four," she will say, "—three," and years later, "Three," she will say, "—four.

When the beer is gone, so are they -- flexing their cars on up the boulevard.

They say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey.

And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the waves feel that much colder.

What I think," Chatty says, "is that if a man loves a woman more than a woman loves a man, then they're even.

I often feel the effects of people only after they leave me.