Death and loss, they plague you. So do memories. Like the Mississippi's incessant slap against the levees, they creep up with deceptive sweetness before grabbing your heart and pulling it under.

The highway of life was littered with the roadkill of those who didn't know when to change lanes.

There is how we were before, and how we are now, and the time between is spent choosing which doors to open, and which to close.

But I think sometimes a person has to be forced underwater to see if they're going to drown or swim.

I know what it is to hope and pray so hard that you're sure God will answer your prayer just so you'll stop asking.

Mama?" "Yes, Emmy." She traced a rivulet of rain with her finger as it made its journey down the glass. "How do you know when it's been long enough?" Emmy could sense her mother smiling into the phone. "When you relaize that love doesn't have a time span. Only pain does. I think sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two, so we just hold on to both of them like they're inseparable.

There are no completely good or bad people. Everybody makes mistakes, or bad choices. It's how we live with them that make us the people we are.