A person's got to think, otherwise that person's no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he'd know he was making a thousand children laugh.

Longevity can't be the only test of love.

And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces—spaces you know can't ever be filled.

Experiencing life through a book can help you learn without all the pain of going through the experiences first hand.

Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that.

It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period—days or weeks—without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.

Why is it I'm always so quick to believe that people are thinking...believing the worst about me?