A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely.

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.

From serenity comes gentleness, comes lasting strength.

Bears being sent through the mail should never be squashed up to make them fit. It gives them indigestion.

Brooks too wide for our leaping, hedges far to high. Loads too heavy for our moving, burdens too cumbersome for us to bear. Distances far beyond our journeying. The horse gave us mastery.

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience.

Sisters share the scent and smells... the feel of a common childhood.