And even though I'm standing in the middle of the biggest crowd I've ever seen in my life, I suddenly feel very alone.

Snapshots, moments, mere seconds: as fragile and beautiful and hopeless as a single butterfly, flapping on against a gathering wind.

Mary bring out your umbrella - The sun shines down on this fine, fine day But the ashes raining down forever Are going to turn your hair to gray. Mary keep your oars a-steady Sail away on the rising flood Keep your candle at the ready Red tides can't be told from blood. - "Miss Mary" (a common child's clapping game, dating from the time of the blitz), from Pattycake and Beyond: A History of Play

But it does not tell you this: that love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself.

The sparrows jumped before they knew how to fly, and they learned to fly only because they had jumped.

There is only what you want and what happens. There is only grabbing on and holding tight in the darkness.

I loved to be alone in the woods, especially in the late fall when everything is crisp and golden, the leaves the color of fire, and it smells like things turning into earth. I loved the silence - the only sound the steady drum of the hooves and the horse's breathing.