The Little Drummer Boy was playing in the background for what seemed like the third time in a row. I fought off an urge to beat that Little Drummer Boy senseless with his own drumsticks.

We sat looking out at the ocean. There was just so much of it, and it never failed to take my breath away. Looking at the ocean gave me the same sensation I'd get staring at a sky full of stars- that I was small. Like the way a math problem reveals its undeniable truth, I knew when I stared into this sort of endlessness that my life didn't count for much of anything. And knowing that, that I was nothing but a speck, I felt pretty lucky for all that I had.

Everyday is filled with opportunities to take a quiet moment

There are days when I think I don't believe anymore. When I think I've grown too old for miracles. And that's right when another seems to happen.

Friends, I was pretty sure, lift their friends up; they don't weigh them down like a sack full of stones

There's no going back from what happened. You can go back and understand the past, but you can't go back and change it.

When there's something or someone, when there's anything that makes you happy, you don't let a continent or an ocean or an empty pocket keep you apart