“How easy it is to think well of ourselves. Until the moment is upon us, we can never be certain.”

“To find someone suddenly gone, to see them one day and not know that this will be the last day you see them, to not have the moment register until hours, days later, or years is never easy. How we catch ourselves as life moves forward, thinking about that last moment and about what we might have done differently, if only we'd known.”

“No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.”

“None of us knows how we will cope with snakes until the moment arises, and then most of us find out that we do not do it very well.”

“It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.”

“... the transition from lost to found is never an easy one. It is never easy to be a prodigal son -- or daughter. It is never easy to say, 'I will arise and go to my father ...' (Luke 15:18, 19). This is never easy, because it is not until our situation becomes completely hopeless that we can humble ourselves to the extent of admitting that such a gross mistake was our own.”