The Forest of Lost Souls

by Dean Koontz

The watcher among the trees does not worry her. The forest is hers not just by day but also by night, when the moon is her lamp whether it has risen or not. She knows most of the paths, and when she does not know the way, the children of the forest will lead her where she needs to go, in safety.

Vida discovers his purpose hasn’t been just to encourage her with loving praise, but also to warn her that a girl with special qualities should live fully, yet with caution in this world of envy, bestial desire, and cruel deceit. The misgiving she’s felt since she was orphaned isn’t irrational; Ogden shares it, and it’s common sense.

“My life passes like a shadow. Yet a little while, and all will be consummated.”

Hope is armor against despair, and as her uncle taught her, patience is a polish that keeps that armor bright. We can’t know the ultimate why of anything, although if we train ourselves to read the intricate fabric that time weaves, we see a pattern certain to console and inspire.

Life always eventually offers us a lamp to press back the darkness humanity brought into it so very long ago, a lamp if we are able to see it and seize it; so said her uncle, who had seined her from the sediment of the city.

The connection between them is more than the human-canine bond; it’s a covenant so precious to her, of such a mysterious—even mystical—nature, she is loath to question or analyze it, out of concern that to do so would diminish the strange but comforting allegiance that has formed between them.

It’s human and sane to want peace and to yearn for transcendence in this world of war and insistent nihilism.

most people will still believe what isn’t true, because the truth is heavy to carry compared to the lightness of a lie.”

Be patient, and the meaning will come to you, for that is who you are. All things come to you in their time.”

Famines are seldom the fault of nature, nearly always the consequence of either human idiocy or a sinister intention to use starvation as a weapon.

You’ll be a champion of the natural world and all its beauty, the guardian of wild things, for you’ll neither wish to dominate nature nor confuse it with what is truly sacred.”

Nature herself is as hard as she is beautiful, red of tooth and claw.

After all, the river does not race and swell over its banks in anticipation of the storm, and trees don’t char on Monday in consideration of a forest fire on Tuesday. She has no need to panic.

She’ll be eternally grateful for the love she’s received and given, regardless of what is to come.

The world is strange beyond knowing, and life is a journey through wonders, toward mystery.

I really liked this quote from the book.

And what will be cannot be allowed to detract from what is, from the beauty of the music or the flavor of the food, because all she has is the moment; all anyone ever has is the moment, and moments, each in succession, are precious.

Although the world is a place of wonders, Vida, what can be seen of it is the least part, and what can’t be seen is the magnificent why and how of the world. Happiness and peace require patient waiting for the sight that at the moment can’t be seen.

Have pity on those who love and are separated, on the lonely, on those who mourn, on those who fear, on all the little animals that live their lives as prey.

The ruling elite loudly champion diversity but use the powerful tools of technology to shape everyone into like-minded worker bees and mindless consumers, into an obedient oneness.

Since he was a boy, dogs have taught him how to be a good man, how to give without expecting to receive, how to live with joy in the moment, how to be stoic in suffering.

These days, so many are educated into ignorance, entertained by shallow amusements that drain from them the very substance of themselves, until they seem to have become ghosts long, long before their deaths.

It’s important for those of us who follow our ancestors to grant dignity to them, because our lives also pass like shadows; in yet a little while, all will be consummated, perhaps sooner than we expect.

She reminds herself that what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Sun Spirit stands with Vida, faces the oncoming death machine, and does not sprint for cover. There is strength in solidarity, but also in suffering and in struggle and in hope.

In her experience, it is civilization, riven by human arrogance and greed and envy, that is, at its worst, a forest of lost souls.