On Mystic Lake

No mother. Two small words, and yet within them lay a bottomless well of pain and loss, a ceaseless mourning for touches that were never received and words of wisdom that were never spoken. No single word was big enough to adequately describe the loss of your mother.

I didn't know how...deep love ran, how it was in your blood, not your heart, and how that same blood pumped through your veins your whole life.

....both had learned that everything could change in an instant, and that the heartfelt vows of people in love were fragile words that, once shattered, could cut so deeply you'd bleed forever.

She used to tell me that she couldn't feel the sunlight anymore, not even when she was standing in it, not even when it was hot on her cheeks

If she wasn't careful, she'd slide without a ripple into the gently flowing stream of her old life, pulled back under the current without a wimper of protest. Another housewife lost in the flow.

There's nothing wrong with being scared...It happens to all of us. What's wrong is if we don't try things because we're afraid. We can't hide away from the things that scare us.

Nothing was easier to shatter than the fragile shield of an idealist.

Sometimes you have to do everything right and follow the rules. You have to wait until all your ducks are in a row before you make a move. And other times... like now... you have to say 'what the hell' and go for it.

For years, she'd mistaken habit and affection for true love. She had assumed that the love she gave her husband was a reflection of the love he felt for her, and now, because of her blindness, she was alone.

She wanted to be with him, and though the realization frightened her, it also set her heart racing with anticipation. When she was with Nick, she was a different woman. Some of his glitter fell onto her and made her feel beautiful and sparkly and more alive.

A dad... he teaches responsibility and accountability, but a mom... ah, a mom teaches her child to dream, to reach for the stars and to believe in fairy tales.

Once, she had taken love for granted. Never again. Love was the sun and the moon and the stars in a world that was otherwise cold and dark.

Love matters. Maybe its the only thing that does.

They had been friends in the way that only girls could be - they wore each other's clothes and slept at each other's houses and told each other every little secret. They promised to always stay friends.

Dreams. They were such precious commodities, and she'd given so many of hers away without a fight. Never again.

Another promise made by a man who'd kept too few.

Stop thinking about what you've lost, and think about what you have left.

There's nothing wrong with being scared. It happens to all of us. What's wrong is if we don't try things because we are afraid. We can't hide away from the things that scare us.

I love you. And if I have to let you go to make you happy, I'll do it.

When you get older, you'll understand. There's a certain comfort in the familiar.

You're stronger than you think you are. You can get through this, whatever happens, you can get through it. Just don't forget...the rain. It's an angel's tears. And every glass you've ever seen is half full. Don't let yourself forget that. I know what it does to a person... forgetting that hope is out there.

Unless he reached out now, in the days that mattered, he would learn that some roads could not be refound and that true love took time and effort … that a life lived in the glare of summer sunlight never produced a rainbow.

Love was the sun and the moon and the stars in a world that was otherwise cold and dark.

The true voyage of self-discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. —MARCEL PROUST

In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. —ALBERT CAMUS

... reminded her how precious time was, how fleeting. How sometimes life snipped the edges off your good intentions and left you with no second chance to say what really mattered.

No single word was big enough to adequately describe the loss of your mother.

I love you...It feels like I've loved you forever. I never knew it could be this way...that love could catch you when you fell.

There are only two people in the world who don’t respect you … as far as I know, anyway.” She looked at Natalie, shaking her head slightly, as if she could stop her daughter’s words. “Just two,” Natalie said. A single tear streaked down her cheek and she impatiently brushed it away. “Dad … and you.

Surely this beautiful creature couldn’t be the child who’d once licked the metal ski-chair pole at Mammoth Mountain … or the girl who’d climbed into her parents’ bed after a nightmare when she was only a year away from being a teenager. Seventeen years had passed in the blink of an eye. It was too fast. Not long enough …