“A bird in the hand loses its mystery in no time flat.”

“she's never forgotten, either, how a mystery caught in the hand could lose its grace”

“It's terrible to lose somebody, but it's also true that some people never have anybody to lose, and I think that's got to be so much worse.”

“...trust in Creation which is made fresh daily and doesn’t suffer in translation. This God does not work in especially mysterious ways. The sun here rises and sets at six exactly. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. A bird raises its brood in the forest and a greenheart tree will only grow from a greenheart seed. He brings drought sometimes followed by torrential rains and if these things aren’t always what I had in mind, they aren’t my punishment either. They’re rewards, let’s say for the patience of a seed.”

“Take one trip overland here and you'll know forever that a road in the jungle is a sweet, flat, impossible dream.”

“Thanks for this day, for all birds safe in their nests, for whatever this is, for life.”

“What you hold in your hands right now, beneath these words, is consecrated air and time and sunlight and, first of all, a place.”