I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.

It hadn't been so long ago, yet sometimes she felt that she'd been an altogether different person back then.

Who did she know in Raleigh who took the time off to fix a house? Or read Whitman or Eliot, finding images in the mind, thoughts of the spirit? Or hunted dawn from the bow of a canoe? These weren't the things that drove society, but she felt they shouldn't be treated as unimportant. They made living worthwhile.

The key to happiness was achievable dreams.

She squinted up at him. "But I haven't always made good decisions." Pastor Harris smiled. "All that shows is that you're human.

I'll be anything you want, just tell me what you want and I'll be that.

When I was seventeen, I don't think I even knew what love was. But when it's right, it's right, and you just know it.