She'd loved him as much as he'd let her. More than he'd let her.

She knew whose love she doubted. It wasn't her parents' and it wasn't her friends: It was her own.

Do you have any idea how much I've loved you?

His distress and pleasure mixed and married, giving birth to several anxious children.

Everything good requires sacrifices.

Exactly! We run or we lose ourselves in something, somebody, anything to try and ease our pain.

A tree is such a rich metaphor in a million beautiful ways. You can consider a tree growing and consider its connectedness to all things above and under the ground.