Twelve Months

You can’t pick a favorite,” I said. “They’re books. They’re pieces of someone’s mind and soul. They’re almost friends.

Good men hurt. And they heal. And when you heal, when the pain has dwindled, it can make you harder, more bitter, more rigid. Or it can make you more…gentle. Understanding. Yes?” “Gentle…” I smiled faintly and shook my head. “Not what I’d call me.” “Then you are wrong,” Matias said quietly. “Gentleness is power that chooses to restrain itself. That is under control. Gentleness is someone strong who makes the choice to be careful with that strength. And that is you.” He exhaled through his nose and smiled at his son telling stories to things that most people thought were purely imaginary. “That is you.

Gentleness is power that chooses to restrain itself. That is under control. Gentleness is someone strong who makes the choice to be careful with that strength.

A wizard is never late,” I muttered. “He arrives as soon as he’s dealt with his PTSD.

Sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do for someone is give them a gentle, firm boot to the ass,

There are moments in your life that are perfect. You know they won’t last long

Which was your favorite?” she asked. “You can’t pick a favorite,” I said. “They’re books. They’re pieces of someone’s mind and soul. They’re almost friends.” I started back down the stairs again. “Sometimes a poet speaks best to what’s happening to you. Sometimes it’s a philosopher. Sometimes it’s a storyteller. Lately, I’ve been thinking of Kipling a lot.

Pain is a fire. That’s true for all of the people, some of the time. If you’ve never had to stand in that fire, be patient: Your turn is coming. Whether the pain is physical or purely mental doesn’t really matter—it turns out that your brain reacts to it the same way, lighting up many of the same centers of perception. Some brainy types in lab coats proved that one fairly recently. The suffering from a broken heart is similar to that from a gunshot wound, in terms of how our minds react over the long term. It all hurts. When you have to live with that hurt, with that pain, when there’s no way to turn it off or get away from it, you start to make adjustments. Your choices in how you deal with your pain determine the course of your recovery. That’s why people who go through a difficult ordeal sometimes come out stronger, and sometimes they come out broken—but they always come out… Changed. Pain is a fire.

Stupidity,” Mab mused. “Courage. The only difference is the outcome.

There was this empty pit inside me where all my recent pain and loss lived, and I felt an urge to hurl myself into it, but I held off. That was the point of all the meditation I’d been doing—to give me some measure of ability to keep functioning even when my body and my heart wanted me to collapse screaming. Sometimes that happened to me at night, late. I’d just start screaming. I’d scream and I wouldn’t be able to stop until I’d screamed myself out. Until I was breathing too hard to keep doing it, until my throat hurt, until my jaws ached from forcing my mouth open too wide. Bear said it happened pretty regularly to folks who had gone to war. That I should roll with it. I wanted to start screaming. But instead, I took a slow, measured breath as I had thousands of times over recent weeks, and murmured,

The real problem with any kind of militant order was there always seemed to be a few people in them who were militant first

Mighty big talk for someone dipped in stupid and rolled in lucky

You don’t see much of it in the papers, on the news, probably not on the internet. Kindness doesn’t sell. Don’t mean it isn’t there.

None of us own our children. We have a little while to hold them in trust

Ramirez drawled. “Did you threaten to defenestrate my partner just before I came up here?” “No,” I said defensively. “There are no windows up here.

The power of magic comes mainly from an emotional collection to whatever the intention of any given spell happened to be.

If I’d been a community activist or a cult leader instead of a wizard, I’d have been off to a great start.

Pain is a fire. And twelve months isn’t long enough to heal from life’s most severe burns. But, if you’re willing to work at it, it’s enough time to make a damned good start.

Peace and happiness aren't the same thing. Not at all. Happiness is peace in action. And peace is happiness at rest. And neither one has to be perfect to be real.

And if it hurt to do it, well. Only the living felt pain.

Basil,” Basil said touching his own chest, and then went down the stairsteps in order of height. “Bay. Thyme. Cardamom. Sage. Parsley. And Cinnamon.” “Etienne liked to cook,” Bob said sourly. “The Spice ’Goyles,” I said with a straight face. Bob groaned.

The loom does not stop weaving because a single thread feels strain,” hissed the crone. Her voice came from somewhere overhead, clear and strong. “The arrow of time flies swift. The hour draws near. Subtlety is a luxury that can no longer be afforded. The ancient ways and ancient drives and ancient pains draw nearer by the hour. And this young thing must be readied for them—or broken, and another weapon chosen.

The suffering from a broken heart is similar to that from a gunshot wound

Stop learning, start dying,” I said seriously. “Why I’m a big believer in reading. Any kind of reading. Even reading pure wild fiction, you learn about what someone else feels life is like. Get a different perspective than your own.

Peace is easy to lose. Hard to get back.

You walk in a world of shadows, Harry. But you’ve always carried your own light. Your path has turned dark and winding, and you aren’t sure where you are at the moment. But you’ll find your way. When it’s time. When you’re ready.

There’s an aphorism used among military historians,” Will said. “Everyone goes into a war prepared to fight like it was the most recent one they were in. But while the big picture of war is the same, the specifics always change. Whoever is best at adapting to those specifics prevails.