A horse can lend its rider the speed and strength he or she lacks - but the rider who is wise remembers it is no more then a loan.

You are asleep. Deep, deep asleep - and then the world caves in. The cat has leapt from the top window onto your stomach. He is saturated. He is hungry. He taps you into full wakefulness with a sodden paw "Could you open a can?"

Music speaks of Platonic truth - the ideal river rather than the polluted reality, love as we dream it rather than we experience it, grief noble and uplifting rather than our distracted weeping. It is necessary to our survival and our sanity.

The child who ran weeping to you with a cut finger is now brought home, smiling gamely, with a broken collarbone and incredible contusions- 'it wasn't Jezebels fault, Dad.'

The work of a garden bears visible fruits-in a world where most of our labours seem suspiciously meaningless.

The first step to wisdom is to be sure one says and does what one believes.

A friend is the only person you will let into the house when you are Turning Out Drawers.