All around the lobby were flickering red candles, and the room was filled with a pleasant scent of cinnamon, clove, and pine.
True understanding often opens the door to forgiveness.
We climb mountains because the valleys are full of cemeteries. The secret of survival is to climb, even in the dark, even when the climb seems pointless. The climb, not the summit, is the thing. And the great don’t just climb mountains, they carve them as they go. Korczak.
It was like hearing my mother was in a book club with Hitler.
Taylor, McKenna, Abigail, and Taylor simultaneously crouched over in pain.
We live in a world that’s always making us work for love. It’s cause and effect. That’s the story of my childhood. If I can be good enough, maybe my mother will love me.
Sometimes, to move forward, we must be willing to look back.
Hard things don’t always make life harder. It takes something hard to sharpen steel.
It’s been written that, He who does not forgive is guilty of the greater sin. That verse had always confounded me. I had considered it unjust at best and cruel at worst. But these words were not meant as condemnation – rather as illumination of an eternal truth: that to not extend forgiveness is to burn the bridge that we ourselves must cross.
Some own up to their past. Some are owned by their past. The wise take what they can from the past and then leave it behind.
We can bemoan what we have lost, or we can be grateful to have been blessed with something to mourn.
Righteous indignation is the alibi of mobs and murderers.
In the end, and, if this is, indeed, my end, remember this: Christmas is the story of a Father reaching out to His children. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Any fool can attack an army and die. A wise man doesn’t plan an attack; he plans a victory.
Humility is the power to admit that you may be wrong. Admitting to false beliefs is not weakness, it is the first step on the path to truth. And make no mistake, there is no such thing as individual truth, only individual perception. Perception is subjective, but truth isn’t.
Ostin, quit calling us mutants.
Heroes are heroes precisely because they are willing to do what everyone else won’t – oppose the popular voice. But we will know what you have done. And in your heart, so will you. And that is more than heroic. It is noble.
Wars aren’t won with guns; they’re won with checkbooks.
Some people aren’t meant to fight. They’re meant to pick up the pieces.
Ostin always said that when it came to snakes the rule of thumb is “the more pretty, the more dangerous.” I think he said the same thing about girls.
The price of love is the risk of losing it.” I frowned. “Is it worth the risk?” “I’ve thought a lot about that. I still think the greatest hurt isn’t to lose love, it’s the regret of never having it. To have never felt love, that would be true tragedy.