“Love, I think, is a gateway to the world, not an escape from it.”

“And then we ease him out of that worn-out body with a kiss, and he's gone like a whisper, the easiest breath.”

“What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?”

“And, I think, this greening does thaw at the edges, at least, of my own cold season. Joy sneaks in: listening to music, riding my bicycle, I catch myself feeling, in a way thats as old as I am but ...”

“Ive been moving a little to the music while I worked and then I realize I am actually dancing. It feels wonderful, though I can feel how stiff my muscles are, how rigidly Ive been holding myselfMos...”

“One last mystery: on one of the little ponds, this morning, I saw wind riffling the first of the waterlily leaves. They havent all emerged yet, but new circles tattoo the water, here and there, a c...”

“...I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday - the longer, the better - from the great boarding-school, where we are for...”

“He went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of ho...”

“The Christmas presents once opened are Not So Much Fun as they were while we were in the process of examining, lifting, shaking, thinking about, and opening them. Three hundred sixty-five days late...”