I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries.
My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy.
In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with love And there may be many things we forget in the days to come, But this will not be one of them.
He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.
There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my Son though some days I'm louder about other stuff so it's easy to miss that.
She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short.
The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it
There came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot that he was part of something much bigger
Wanting him to come back before anyone notices part of the world has not moved since he left.
I was never good at hide and seek because I'd always make enough noise so my friends would be sure to find me. I don't have anyone to play those games with any more, but now and then I make enough noise just in case someone is still looking and hasn't found me yet.
You may not remember the time you let me go first. Or the time you dropped back to tell me it wasn't that far to go. Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up. You may not remember any of those, but I do and this is what I have to say to you: Today, no matter what it takes, we ride home together.
I am only strong enough for a life of partial virtue.
The clock is a conspiracy & a crime against humanity and I would not own one except I miss appointments without it.
These are little packets of light and you need to plant them early in the year and remember to mark where they were because lots of times they look like weeds in the beginning and it's not until later that you see how beautiful they really are.
If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right.
Opening a door to the mysteries, hoping to shed a little dark on all the stuff we think we know.
I don't blame you for everything, she told me. Just the stuff my friends & I can agree on.
Empty Spaces:After his father died he carried his life more gently & left an empty space for the birds & other creatures.
I used to believe my father about everything but then I had children myself & now I see how much stuff you make up just to keep yourself from going crazy.
There really is only one story that you need to tell as a scientist or a technologist. It's Prometheus stealing fire. That's it. That's what we do as scientists or technologists.
We went to a church that had missionaries who'd come back once a year from Fiji & give talks. I remember one of them saying it was very hard work telling people they were going to lose their everlasting souls if they didn't shape up. I pictured people sitting on the beach listening to this sweaty man all dressed in black telling them they were going to burn in hell & them thinking this was good fun, these scary stories this guy was telling them & afterwards, they'd all go home & eat mango & fish & they'd play Monopoly & laugh & laugh & they'd go to bed & wake up the next day & do it all again.
If you're talking to a child, you're going, 'This is the wonder of science and here's why I'm so fascinated by it.'
Wrapped around my son with only the knowledge of the words of the world & a quiet remembrance of watching before this all began.
You're not going to see people like this again for a long time, he said and I said I always saw people like this & he looked at me for a moment and said, You're not from around here, are you?
