We don't own the earth. We are the earth's caretakers...we take care of it and all the things on it. And when we're done with it, it should be left better than we found it.

Sadness is a powerful foe, maybe harder to keep down than happiness.

I was saying the right things, but not the really true things.

...if a child waited to speak until all the grown-ups settled down and gave her some room to say her piece, the most important things would never get said.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and filled myself up with the breeze from the valley. Then I let it out slow so it could get back to its travels, with a little bit of me added to it.

...how do you run and play when you feel like there are bricks of the heaviest sadness weighing down every part of your body? How do you laugh and talk when there are no laughs left inside of you?

I just loved making words into stories by the sound of my voice.