I believe, in my better moments, that there is a plan and things go not the way we want them to but the way they should.

From my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on Spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread basket wanders from table to table, lonesome as a cloud. When he comes to me his basket is full and perfectly arranged. He gives me a smile of sincere pleasure when I tell him I will take both the sourdough roll and the cheese stick.

The timing of the electrical failure seemed dramatic and perfectly correct, as if the lights had said, "You have no need for sight. Listen.

Maybe that was the definition of life everlasting: the belief that the next generation would carry your work forward.

Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

I used to do everything to keep a wall up around myself and keep my life quiet so that I could write.