There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.

Nobody, who looks at a shard of flint lying beneath a rock ledge, or who finds a splintered log by the side of the road would ever find magic in their solitude. But in the right circumstances, if you bring them together, you can start a fire that consumes the world.

a guardian ad litem... GAL is appointed by a court to be a child's advocate during legal proceedings that involve a minor. You don't have to be a lawyer to be trained as a GAL, but you have to have a moral compass and a heart. Which, actually probably renders most lawyers unqualified for the job.

The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.

This was the reason there was music, he realized. There were some feelings that didn't have words big enough to describe them.

something is always falling apart in me.

Everyone has a story; everyone hides his past as a means of self-preservation. Some just do it better, and more thoroughly, than others.