Amy Harmon

This thing we have, it hurts, he continued. But the pain is almost sweet because it means YOU happened. We happened. And I can't regret that, no matter how little or how long I get to tag along with you and pretend that I don't hate having people recognize me or take pictures or having people whisper about my record--" Your record?"" My criminal record, Bonnie, Nothing platinum there. I'm an ex-con, and starting over and building a new life where I can put it behind me, I'm building a new life where it will never be behind me, and for you, its worth it. It's easy math.

Sometimes funny is all you've got.

I had wanted to disappear, if only so the cancer could disappear with me. But the stars whispered that there was no such thing. You don__ ever disappear. You just change. You leave. You move on. But you never disappear. Even when you think you want to.

When the ancient Romans would conquer a new place or a new people, they would leave the language and the customs in tact _ they would even let the conquered people rule themselves in most cases, appointing a governor to maintain a foothold in the region._ Wilson leaned against the whiteboard as he spoke, his posture relaxed, his hands clasped loosely.__his was part of what made Rome so successful. They didn't try to make everyone Romans in the process of conquering them. When I went to Africa with the Peace Corp, a woman who worked with the Corp said something to me that I have often thought about since. She told me 'Africa is not going to adapt to you. You are going to have to adapt to Africa.' That is true of wherever you go, whether it's school or whether it's in the broader world.

True beauty, the kind that doesn't fade or wash off, takes time. It takes incredible endurance. It is the slow drip that creates the stalactite, the shaking of the Earth that creates mountains, the constant pounding of the waves that breaks up the rocks and smooths the rough edges. And from the violence, the furor, the raging of the winds, the roaring of the waters, something better emerges, something that would have otherwise never existed.And so we endure. We have faith that there is purpose. We hope for things we can't see. We believe there are lessons in loss, power in love, and that we have within us the potential for a beauty so magnificent, our bodies can't contain it.

What softened your heart?" I asked softly."Good music and a friend."I felt my eyes burn a little and turned from him, blinking quickly to lap up the sting of tears. "Music has incredible power""So does friendship," he supplied frankly.

We weren't so different, Finn and I. Cages come in lots of colors and shapes. Some are gilded, while others have a slamming door. But golden handcuffs are still handcuffs.

But she wasn__ the only one who was suffering, and sometimes there is comfort in the knowledge that you don__ suffer alone, sad as that is.

God wants us to receive everything that life was meant to teach. Then we take what we've learned, and it becomes our offering to God and to mankind. But we have to live in order to learn. And sometimes we have to fight in order to live.

In the light everything is obvious. There are no secrets. You simply have to look in order to see.

The road was so dimly lighted.There we;re no highway signs to guide.But they made up their minds,If all roads were blind,They wouldn't give up 'til they died....

I wondered how he'd learned to push the words away, to drown them, to not feel them pounding against his head and his heart, begging to be spoken.

The world is alive with words

He'd been given every word he needed, and every word had been stripped from me. I wanted them back. All of them.

...There's a lot I don't understand...but not understanding is better not believing" - Ambrose

Why don__ you focus on where you__e going and less on where you came from?

Saying something is __eant to be_ is a cop out. It__ a way for people to deal when they screw up or when life hands them a bowl of shit stew. The things that are meant to be are the things we can__ control, the things we don__ cause, the things that happen regardless of who or what we are. Like sunsets and snow-fall and natural disasters. I__e never believed hardship or suffering was meant to be. I__e never believed relationships were meant to be. We choose. In large part, we choose. We create, we make mistakes, we burn bridges, we build new ones.

But it wasn__. Sex is not the most intimate thing two lovers can do. Even when the sex is beautiful. Even when it__ perfect._ Millie drew a deep breath as if she remembered how perfect it had truly been. __he most intimate thing we can do is to allow the people we love most to see us at our worst. At our lowest. At our weakest. True intimacy happens when nothing is perfect. And I don__ think you__e ready to be intimate with me, David.