Boys in the Valley

One reason tragedy exists is to teach us how to help others, help others learn how to find a way through their own dark time, through a journey of growth.

God’s greatest gift to us is our ability to love others, and to see it happening before your eyes … it’s like watching a garden grow.

When I hit, there’s no pain. I don’t know if it’s because I’m safe, or because I’m dead.

I only know that my path has been chosen, and my mission is clear: save who can be saved. Whatever it takes.

It is his love for the boy that weakens him. But that’s what love is, ultimately. A form of blessed weakness.

The boys are waking.

I am sorry. About all of this. I know you are scared. And I know how unfair all of this is, but I need you two to lead while I am gone. I need you to stop being boys, and become the men I know you already are, inside and out. Not everyone gets a choice as to when they are forced to grow up, but this moment, this day, is yours. You must meet the challenge.

him, because he can stand it now. He can stand it quite well. In a dark, secret closet of his mind, a place where the flies can’t enter, a piece of him hides. Like the closet from his childhood, except now, instead of fearing the dark, he welcomes it. The dark means safety. It means that there is a thread of will that remains to him. A thread of sanity. That part of him hiding

The discovery of Christ is not found in a darkened room, Peter,” he says solemnly. “It’s found in the light. God is not found through escape from a distant place, but through the arrival of where you already are.

It is a black seed waiting to take root, twine itself into my bones, my flesh, my mind. It is my constant, silent adversary. A slow poison that I feel will forever be my secret burden, and one that I would never inflict upon another.

But that’s what love is, ultimately. A form of blessed weakness.

I’m crying now, and it’s getting harder to breathe. The flames must have seen me come in here because they’ve followed me—giddy and murderous—through the open door. As they climb the walls I hear their laughter. Taunting me. Mocking me.

Guard your feelings like gold coins from those who would steal them, or pick them from your pocket.

Some, I can tell, even find it exciting. As if it were a game, all this murder.

First of all,” he says evenly, “be careful you don’t confuse evil with despair. One reason tragedy exists is to teach us how to help others, help others learn how to find a way through their own dark time, through a journey of growth.

I can walk,” I say, not knowing if it’s the truth, but also knowing there’s no other option.

You must be fully aware of all aspects of each decision you make in this world. All sides. Only then can you be certain that the choice you make is the correct one.

He has a big heart, bold as a rose in full bloom, even if it is surrounded by protective thorns.

there is light all around me. There is light inside me.

We didn't hit it off like many others in similar situations....Instead, he and I sort of gravitated around each other, either friends nor foes, like the moons of a planet we had no interest in observing but whose orbit we were forced to nonetheless reside within.

The sky is the color of stone, flat and hard in appearance, but brittle, as if it would crack like an eggshell - revealing black seams of the universe beyond - if struck hard enough. .

As they follow, Andrew notes the long lines of wet blood running from the dragged man's black, naked feet; the flow of blood inking a wavery line across the stone, as if it were paint, and the sheriff's brother the dampened brush.