The mind self-edits. The mind airbrushes. It's a different thing to be inside a body than outside. From outside, you can look, inspect, compare. From inside there is no comparison.

Just like ice, lives crack, too. Personalities. Identities.

Some cities have fallen into ruin and some are built upon ruins but others contain their own ruins while still growing.

We Greeks are a moody people. Suicide makes sense to us. Putting up Christmas lights after your own daughter does it--that makes no sense. What my yia yia could never understand about America was why everyone pretended to be happy all the time.” -Mrs. Karafilis

It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.

She was a large, disordered woman, like a child's drawing that didn't stay within the lines.

But, like anyone in love, Madeleine believed that her own relationship was different from every other relationship, immune from typical problems.