The Party Line

by Carolyn Brown

I’ll show you how to apply makeup,” she had said. “The trick is to put it on in such a way that it looks like natural beauty. Don’t plaster it on to try to cover your freckles. Own them and everything else that makes you who you are. Don’t be ashamed of your height, your hair, or your body. God gave them to you.”

“She once told me that the past was gone and should be forgiven. The future was just a glimmer of hope on the horizon; the present was what we had, and we should live it to the fullest.”

“‘Life is short, at best,’”

Her husband of more than fifty years told her that half of his heart was going with her but that half of her heart stayed with him. He made a promise that he would go see the mountains in the wintertime when the snow was knee deep. He would wade through it so that she could see it through his eyes and the half of a heart that was still hers that beat in his chest.”

“Anything worth having is worth taking a risk,”

Every choice has a consequence.

“When in doubt, don’t.”

“It means if you have doubts or if you’re fighting with yourself, then you better take a step back and figure things out before you jump headfirst into the water.”

“Experience is what we get when we didn’t get what we wanted.”

She always said you were a little piece of heaven on Earth and had brought light back into her heart,” Jasper said.

They were loves of the mind and body, not of the heart.