“I went to bed without reading, instead staring out my window with the curtains drawn, wondering about boys. Why did they behave so oddly? One minute their teasing was relentless, and then bam! — they’d stun you with a thoughtful gesture. Either way, their actions made you want to cry. Maybe that was the intent.”

“I’m not saying that I think one man is better than the other. I’m not saying that either is kinder or wiser or more ambitious, more thoughtful, confident, or able. But the fact is that when I’m with the one, comfort settles into my bones. I feel calm around him, as if the sun is smiling down on me and the world has suddenly become a sweet, safe place to be. I feel good about life―about myself. And it’s hard not to want to be near someone who, just by their very nature, makes you feel that way.”

“Had life not given me reasons to grieve, I would never have known the healing power of a hug.”

“Mistakes focus our minds on specific details. They weed out truths and afford us goals, bringing straight to our attention lessons to be learned. Mistakes are not meant to make us failures; they are meant to make us wise.”

“One of the most troubling facts I have had to accept is that people are not all angel or all devil. They are both good and awful to varying degrees and in varying circumstances. On any given day, dependent upon the situation, you will be confronted by either the devil of a person or the angel of the same person or a curious mix of both. This means you can, and most likely will, love and hate the same individual alternately throughout your life. This truth I find painfully heartbreaking.”

“Rare and precious moments, how I long to live with you eternally! If only your sweetness never ceased to touch my lips, and the flutters you evoke nevermore faded away. I dream of your arm extended immeasurably to keep hold of my reaching hand. But Father Time, being a cruel master, will not grant such a wish. And so I tuck you away as cherished memories, stored in a treasure box buried in my heart. And in times of solitude, I shall bring you out to view like rainbows.”

“Poetry is the wailing of a broken heart―the etched sorrows of despairing souls.  These artful words are an exclamation in rare colors expressed noiselessly on parchment.  Poetry is the unheard cry of a flower, wilting.  It is a humble, lucent tear shed with meaning.  It is the lovely portrayal of ugliness and the bitter edge of sweet.  Poetry speaks to the spirit by piercing understanding. It interprets all senseless truths―beauty, love, emotion―into sensible scrawl.  Poetry is vague affirmation and bewildering clarification. Like the most poignant of emotions, we understand the essence but cannot adequately do it verbal justice, crippled by inherently weak tongues.  A spiritual soothsayer, poetry is the closest thing to expression of feelings unutterable.”

“The real beauty of a woman is most clearly seen in the smiles of those who interact with her.”

“The rarest, truest beauty is visible only to the heart.”

“Death. What a brief word for the extinguishing of life. To be no more. To have days cut off and at their end. To never again……….anything.”

“The crazy thing about poetry is how its simplicity makes it complicated.”

“The effects of loss are acute, and unique to each individual. Not everyone mourns in the same way, but everyone mourns.”

“I think in the heart of every human being there burns an ember of hope that warmly entices us to believe everything will eventually come together into one perfect day, and that potentially the hours in this day will stretch on indefinitely. And so we live our lives in hopeful anticipation, dreaming and praying to reach this wondrous day, while in the process we miss out on the anxious affair that life truly is. Life is not perfection; it is everything else. We must taste and experience heartaches and trials in order to feel the genuine joy that comes from enduring them well. We then move on, wiser and more capable of charity—this being pure love and the reason for life’s trials altogether.”

“My favorite words in the world are these: “what” and “if” in conjunction.They question curiosities in simple form and function.“What” is a query of broadest scope.“If” is wonder that fuels all hope.Together they lasso the mind like rope, and spur the wildest deductions!”