For in hope's absence, a miracle arrived

Little princess, lovely as the dawn, well named Aurore.

I will not fail,' the water bearer's daughter vowed. 'But worse than failing is not to try at all. For then there can be no hope of success.

That is what love is I thought. A possibility that becomes a choice. A choice you keep making over and over. Day after day. Year after year. Time after time.

True love comes when it will, not when it's called.

A will to be unkind is like a sickness. It can be healed or driven out. But to be unkind because you are thoughtless is the worst kind of blindness: difficult to cure, because you cannot see the fault even as you commit it.

Love so joyfully and freely given can never be taken away. It is never truly gone.