Odd how much it hurts when a friend moves away- and leaves behind only silence.

One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.

An older sister is a friend and defender - a listener, conspirator, a counsellor and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.

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?"

Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break. Monopolize the bathroom. Are always underfoot. But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there. Defending you against all comers.

Odd how much it hurts when a friend moves away- and leaves behind only silence.

For every person who has ever lived there has come, at last, a spring he will never see. Glory then in the springs that are yours.