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Opportunities given are responsibilities.
Balancing acts of the soul. Acquiescence happens more than its opposite—a rising up in anger and rejection. There are wolves in the world, inside elegant palaces as well as in the dark woods and the wild.
We accumulate sins and guilt, just by moving through our days, making choices, doing, not doing.
names are often lost as time runs. Mine will be, I have done little to be remembered.
Waiting was often the best solution, to his mind. A problem might go away by itself.
Perhaps in the darkest times all we can do is refuse to be part of the darkness.
Some things are never to be ours: we love them, and dream.
We like to believe, or pretend, we know what we are doing in our lives. It can be a lie. Winds blow, waves carry us, rain drenches a man caught in the open at night, lightning shatters the sky and sometimes his heart, thunder crashes into him bringing the awareness he will die. We stand up, as best we can under that. We move forward as best we can, hoping for light, kindness, mercy, for ourselves and those we love.
Who can know which idle decisions we make will play a role in our lives? That feeling of randomness is surely a reason we pray, or carry objects meant to bring protection or good fortune, why we live in terror of demons.
“Are you afraid of life?” he asked. His voice was quiet. “Of opening a door your hand is on?”
Not every gift is ours, even with desire.
There are not always wise or meaningful words spoken at the end of a life.
People drew sharp lines in the world, Jelena thought, even when there was no justification for them.
I was thinking hard, trying to do so usefully.
