rarely seen but deeply felt

You are so young, all still lies ahead of you, and I should like to ask you, as best I can, dear Sir, to be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.

To heal, you must learn to be alone.

You might not remember. But I remember, I remember it all. The last time you kissed me, the last time you said I love you, the last time you opened your heart to me, the last time things were normal, the last time I cried, the last time I wrote to you in the letter you won’t read. I’m not saying any of it was final, I never say never but it hasn’t happened in a long time and the truth is my heart is too soft for someone who comes and goes. So here I am, almost left and almost done, and there you are, almost here and almost gone, and none of it is enough for me, as much as I’d like it to be. My heart is strong but it needs more than what you’re giving. So pretty soon I’ll stop taking half finished intentions and thoughts. Stop trying if it’s too much. Don’t give me half love. I’d rather have none than not enough.

Moving on isn’t about when you don’t remember anymore, it’s being okay even when you do.

Run the risk. If it works out, happiness. If not, wisdom.

There are two people you’ll meet in your life. One will run a finger down the index of who you are and jump straight to the parts of you that pique their interest. The other will take his or her time reading through every one of your chapters and maybe fold corners of you that inspired them most. You will meet these two people; it is a given. It is the third that you’ll never see coming. That one person who not only finishes your sentences, but keeps the book.

And when you choose a life partner, you’re choosing a lot of things, including your parenting partner and someone who will deeply influence your children, your eating companion for about 20,000 meals, your travel companion for about 100 vacations, your primary leisure time and retirement friend, your career therapist, and someone whose day you’ll hear about 18,000 times.