I ultimately decided to hold my tongue and settle instead for the comfort of ignorance. Not knowing the truth, I retained hope, and that hope I held like a smooth warm stone against my heart.

I milked, of course, and did some work around the barn, and tried not to think about Brian, which was like trying not to breathe.

And if I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering who I could have turned into if only I’d had the guts to try.

What is a staircase, but a corridor improved by elevation?

And I have to tell you, as tough as farming is, the idea of farming when you’re losing money year after year... that’s not life even, that’s like death. That’s eternal damnation.

I could not but wonder at the queen's unprecedented civility, until I realized with a flush of shame that it was my own improved behavior that motivated hers. So it is that we in life determine our own treatment.

Today exists between yesterday and tomorrow.