Even in that time of utter darkness, somewhere deep inside me the memory of love and goodness had stayed alive.

a tree is never just a tree, it is bigger and deeper and wiser than a girl like you will ever be.

I should have realized, when Cathal kissed me in the hallway, that my response was the first raindrop heralding a storm.

The world is simple, I think, in its essence. Life, death, love, hate. Desire, fulfillment. Magic.

My daughter," I said blankly. "I see. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought it took a man, as well as a woman, to make a child. Is this infant's father to be a crab, or a seagull maybe? Or were you planning to shipwreck some likely sailor on my doorstep, so I can make convenient use of him?

He would have told her - he would have said, it matters not if you are here or there, for I see you before me every moment. I see you in the light of the water, in the swaying of the young trees in the spring wind. I see you in the shadows of the great oaks, I hear your voice in the cry of the owl at night. You are the blood in my veins, and the beating of my heart. You are my first waking thought, and my last sigh before sleeping. You are - you are bone of my bone, and breath of my breath.

Breath of the winds; dancing flame; peace of the earth; song of the waves.