Craig Thompson

“For what matters if I gain the whole world, but lose my soul?”

“At night, lying on your back and staring at the falling snow, it's easy to imagine oneself soaring through the stars.”

“Pressed against her I can hear eternity -- hollow, lonely spaces and currents that churn ceaselessly, and the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "Hush".”

“I wanted a heaven. And I grew up striving for that world-- an eternal world- that would wash away my temporary misery.”

“The Sufi saint Rabi'a Al-Adawiyya was seen carrying a firebrand and a jug of water - the firebrand to burn Paradise, the jug of water to drown Hell...So that both veils disappear, and God's followers worship, not out of hope for reward, nor fear of punishment, but out of love.”

“You're more than a story.”

“They say a man's inspiration is visual, but for a woman, it's the narrative. Abandon both the narrative and the visual. Close your eyes, measure your breath. Dead weight is sloughed off, dust swept away, forms dissolve into one atmosphere. The rib cage opens, the lungs fill, the breast rises. Waves sweep up the body on their swell, rocking it rhythmically. Feet planted, the back arches, the pelvis reaches forward. Oxygen kindles a flame, sprawling through the belly, and gathering in a warm blaze. The hand reaches to meet the sensation. Calligraphy spills from the inkwell. Open your eyes, sharpen your focus, and exclaim: There are no separations.”

“I love the sea because it is boundless.”

“Her lips tarried at mine. Baiting each other with the warmth of our breath, barely grazing, detouring, then connecting.”

“I was grateful for cereal --- the only food that my tummy, riddled by pangs of infatuation, could handle.”

“Maybe I'm sad about wanting you. I'm not too comfortable with wanting someone.”

“Even a mistake is better than nothing.”

“On my first visit to the public library, I was like a kid at a candy store where all the candy was free.I gorged myself until my tummy ached.”

“And slowly the snow began to melt. First, doing a number on children's constructions; Then retreating to the foundations of barns and other buildings. Mangy grass poked through the receding snow. Patches of white were swallowed up in the till of the fields. New shapes emerged. Areas of the forest became INACCESSIBLE now that the snow no longer weighed down the weeds and brier. ...Nothing fits together anymore.”

“Which is scarier-- lust or temptation? ”

“and yet I feel that the most real home I'll ever have is the space where our roads merged and traveled along together... for a time.”

“Sometimes, upon waking, the residual dream can be more appealing that reality, and one is reluctant to give it up. For a while, you feel like a ghost -- Not fully materialized, and unable to manipulate your surroundings. Or else, it is the dream that haunts you. You wait with the promise of the next dream.”

“I promise-ted I'd care up for him downwise 'til the tailend of time.”

“Shame is always easier to handle if you have someone to share it with.”

“Something about being rejected at Church Camp felt so much more awful than being rejected at school. ”

“How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement - no matter how temporary.”

“You have so many layers, that you can peel away a few, and everyone's so shocked or impressed that you're baring your soul, while to you it's nothing, because you know you've twenty more layers to go.”