Life on earth, filled with uncertainty and change, seemed far more difficult than what lay beyond the grave.

Life on earth, filled with uncertainty and change, seemed far more difficult than what lay beyond the grave.

It is a rule of nature that taking a day off on the farm sets a person back at least a week.

It was about forgiving. I understood that forgiveness itself was strong, durable—like strands of a web weaving around us, holding us.

From early on I valued the gift of memory above all others. I understood that as we grow older we carry a whole nation around inside of us, places and ways that have disappeared, believing that they are ours, that we alone hold the torch for our past, that we are as impenetrable as stone.

My god has always been a laissez-faire deity, giving you the initial goods and sending you on to make your way.

There were so many miracles at work: that a blossom might become a peach, that a bee could make honey in its thorax, that rain might someday fall. I thought then about the seasons changing, and in the gray of night I could almost will myself to see the azure sky, the gold of the maple leaves, the crimson of the ripe apples, the hoarfrost on the grass.