“Does the plain, simple beauty of life get buried under societys so-called required daily activities or is that just true of me? No, I know Im not alone in that feeling. We all get caught up in the ...”

“Just make sure the day doesnt pass without sayin whats in your heart. Sometimes you pass up those chances and theyre gone forever.”

“As an adult I had mastered the art of looking without seeing and listening without hearing and eating without tasting and maybe even existing without living.”

“Its a funny thing, one day youre living and the next day youre not sometimes, whether you have plans or not. Wishes and wants get trumped by the reaper every time. I dont even know if I would want ...”

“I had always been a boy in this place, and many of the trees and rocks and streams had been old men when I knew them. Some had died. All had changed. I knew that. I had changed the most.”

“The world bein so small aint always a good thing for those of us who aint searchin for new and different stuff.”

“The land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts.”

“At the age of 45, most days in Tucson were spent feeling like I was on the summit of Mauna Kea, as I was exhibiting debilitating health symptoms that corresponded to what I saw at very high altitud...”

“The hour is only long thus, if you've waited.”

“I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, and with being this alive, this intense. (xxvi)”

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”

“Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in.”

“We can never skip growing old. As we grow older, we understand old things and things of old times better!”

“The picture enclosed here is of a hibiscus that has been flowering in the parlor window one bloom at a time for what seems like a year or more. Its getting to where I dont remember when there wasnt...”

“Why couldn't everyone stay young forever? If not on the outside, then just on the inside, where no one ever got too old to be optimistic.”