It saddens me that Christians need to be reminded that awe is owed also to those who disagree with them, who believe otherwise than they do.

The twinkling of an eye. That is the most wonderful expression. I've thought from time to time it was the best thing in life, that little incandescence you see in people when the charm of a thing strikes them, or the humor of it. 'The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart.' That's a fact.

It all means more than I can tell you. So you must not judge what I know by what I find words for.

This is not to say that joy is a compensation for loss, but that each of them, joy and loss, exists in its own right and must be recognised for what it is ... So joy can be joy and sorrow can be sorrow, with neither of them casting either light or shadow on the other.

Now that I look back, it seems to me that in all that deep darkness a miracle was preparing. So I am right to remember it as a blessed time, and myself as waiting in confidence, even if I had no idea what i was waiting for.

Generosity is also an act of freedom, a casting off of the constraints of prudence and self-interest.

There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, everyone of them sufficient