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“I had learned to find equal meaning in the repeated rituals of domestic life. Setting the table. Lighting the candles. Building the fire. Cooking. All those soufflés, all that crème caramel, all those daubes and albóndigas and gumbos. Clean sheets, stacks of clean towels, hurricane lamps for storms, enough water and food to see us through whatever geological event came our way. These fragments I have shored against my ruins, were the words that came to mind then. These fragments mattered to me. I believed in them.”

“Hold my hand in yours, and we will not fear what hands like ours can do.”

“Her smile, I’m sure, burnt Rome to the ground.”

“tonight the landscape is fired by moonlight…and I am thinking of you.”

“But here’s a little secret for you: no one is ever the same thing again after anything. You are never the same twice, and much of your unhappiness comes from trying to pretend that you are. Accept that you are different each day, and do so joyfully, recognizing it for the gift it is. Work within the desires and goals of the person you are currently, until you aren’t that person anymore, and everything changes once again.”

“If you regret some of the decisions you made in the past, don’t be so hard on yourself. At that time, you did your best with the knowledge that you had. At that time, you did your best with the experience that you had. Some of your decisions might have been coping skills and a time when you didn’t know what you know today. If you were to make those decisions with the wisdom you have now, you would choose differently. So give yourself a break and forgive yourself. Time and experience has a wonderful way to make us realize that we prosper, grow and learn to make better choices today, for ourselves and those we care for.”