quote no. 4

"They carried gravity."

-Tim O'Brien

"The Things They Carried"

(a Vietnam war memoir)

quote no. 3

"The first time you swore was the first time it happened in history.  It was the first time on the face of the earth.  That is how unique, and powerful you are as human beings...when you write, you are saying, 'I was here.'  You are leaving a record of your existence."

-Don Yost, writer/ English professor

Quote no.2

"...whereas we find a thick, if translucent, barrier between self and other, he was often without even the thinnest differentiating membrane."

-Stephen Mitchell on Rainer Maria Rilke

Over a year ago, I was gifted with the wonderful book "Letters to a Young Poet."  I wept when I read the little note on the front page that was written to me by a good friend.  Special isn't a grand enough word to descrite how I felt to be given that book.  It is something that someone cherished enough to underline passages that were powerful to them at some places in time.  Now, one year later, I have picked it up again.  This time, at nearly 3AM, I began to see myself in Rilke more than ever.

photo sources unknown