When you have been with your partner for so many years, they become the glove compartment map that you've worn dog-eared and white-creased, the trail you recogonize so well you could draw it by heart and for this very reason keep it with you on journeys at all times. And yet, when you least expect it, one day you open your eyes and there is an unfamiliar turnoff, a vantage point taht wasn't there before, and you have to stop and wonder if maybe this landmark isn't new at all, but rather something you have missed all along.

Did you ever walk through a room that's packed with people, and feel so lonely you can hardly take the next step?

Eventually, I told myself not to expect anything from him, and as a result it has gotten easier for me to take what comes.

Tutoring a four year old to get into an exclusive preschool made as much sense as hiring a swim coach for a guppy.

But love wasn't about sacrifice, and it wasn't about falling short of someone's expectations. By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. All any of us wanted, really, was to know that we counted. That someone else's life would not have been as rich without us here.

She had never been a pretty crier. She sobbed the way she did everything else - with passion and excess.

In the custom of mourning, the fabric of the night had been ripped, revealing a star at each tiny tear.