“Pain and suffering are the soil of strength and courage.”

“She did know that the journey to happiness was laborious and strewn with seeds of suffering. She guessed that it was probably a place each person had to seek for herself, that each heart had to find on its own.”

“On our garden walks Mama always used to tell me, 'Angels live in gardens, Darcy.' 'Where?' I would ask, looking around for the white-winged beings I saw drawn on my Sunday school papers. 'Close your eyes and breathe deep.''All is smell is flowers, Mama,' I would say.'Not so. That's the breath of the angels. And the stirrings you hear in the leaves are their wings brushing past.”

“hanging out the window, Amber blew her a kiss. a lump the size of a fist clogged Heather's throat, while a breeze from th sea pushed her thick hair away from her face. tears trickled unchecked down her cheeks. ”

“We all didn't come into to the world at the same time so it makes sense that we don't leave it at the same time.”

“Each generation stamps itself onto the next one. The impression is indelible. Like the flowers in my mother's gardens that come and go with the changing seasons, life re-creates itself. And the best of life must be nurtured if it is to thrive.”

“Esto es lo que me pasó a mí. Pensé que tenía normas. Yo creía en mis absolutos. Lo hice para la mayoría de las situaciones. Entonces no lo hice. Conforme pasó el tiempo, mi mundo se volvió gris y mis absolutos se oscurecieron. El bien y el mal sedisolvieron en lo que sabía que tenía que hacer.”