They say that there are three kinds of people in the world. There are people who never learn one way or another anything; there are people who learn from their own mistakes, eventually and with great pain; and then there are the really wise people who learn from other people's mistakes and spare themselves the suffering.

No experience in this world has ever been cathartic without the willing participation of the individual. Life does not automatically bestow wisdom or growth upon anyone just for showing up.

library is a beautiful old thing

True wisdom gives the only possible answer at any given moment, and that night, going back to bed was the only possible answer.

I am alone, I am all alone, I am completely alone. Grasping this reality, I let go of my bag, drop to my knees and press my forehead against the floor. There, I offer up to the universe a fervent prayer of thanks. First in English. Then in Italian. And then - just to get the point across - in Sanskrit.

How could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after? It had to work. Didn’t it?

Sometimes life is too hard to be alone, and sometimes life is too good to be alone.