Once you had put the pieces back together, even though you may look intact, you were never quite the same as you'd been before the fall.

Those eyes, they've got a history with mine. They were the first things I saw when I came to, after being hit in the skull with a baseball thrown by Patrick at Little League. They were the fortification I needed at sixteen to ride the chairlift at Sugarloaf, although I am terrified of heights. For almost my whole life, they've told me I'm doing all right, during moments when it was not in my own power to answer.

This is when I realize that Anna has already left the table, and more importantly, that nobody noticed.

Do you know how sometimes - when you are riding your bike and you start skidding across sand, or when you miss a step and start tumbling down the stairs - you have those long, long seconds to know that you are going to be hurt, and badly?

Gay rights is not something most of us think about - because most of us happen to have been born straight.

The wolves knew when it was time to stop looking for what they'd lost, to focus instead on what was yet to come.

If you want to love a parent you have to understand the incredible investment he or she has in you. If you are a parent, and you want to be loved, you have to deserve it.