Finding Noel, Part 2

I finished the book last night....I couldn't put it down. So, here's the rest of what I found valuable:

- Life had taught her that no good day went unpaid for.

- All psychiatrists have issues. Why do you think they became psychiatrists?

- When it comes to hurting children we cannot claim ignorance. Every adult I've ever met has once been a child And some have become more so.

- I have puzzled over the phrase "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Does that mean people intend well but never actually do it? Or that they do good things with bad results? I suppose it doesn't matter much. Either way the right thing doesn't get done.

- Tomorrow my world changes.

- I believe that whatever good or evil we do in this life eventually comes back to us. But in the sace of rampant evil, it brings its friends.

- Sometimes you can't go home again.

- Some people make life harder than it needs to be.

- Oftentimes the greatest hurts in our lives come from running from the smaller ones.

- Sometimes love happens so gradually that by the time you realize you're in it, you're already cooked.

- When you've finally met the one person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

- Usually life's greatest gifts come wrapped in adversity.

- I have never felt truly at ease around the clean, shiny people of this world. Life has taught me the most trustworthy and honest are usually those who are frayed around the edges. Not always but usually.

- "And then one day I had this epiphany. I realized that being a parent was like being the Wizard of Oz." / I remembered what Macy had said earlier about Joette's life philosophy and I had to hide my amusement. "What do you mean?"/ "You know the part when Dorothy and her friends go to see the Wizard? This big, ominous head talks to them and they're all terrified. The her dog..."/ "Toto, " I said. / "Right. Toto pulls back teh curtain and there's a little man behind it pulling levers and throwing switches. And he says into his microphone, "Ignore the man behind the curtain." I think that being a parent is like being the man behind the curtain. We pretend that we know what we're doing - that we're back behind the curtain throwing levers and switches, doing the best we can." / In spite of myself, I found her explanation interesting. "And then our kids find out that we're not as great as they thought we were?" / "Exactly. And then they're angry and disappointed that we can't meet their expectations - as unrealistic as they are."

- "There are things in my past. Dark things you don't know about. " / "I don't care about your past. It's your future, our future, that I'm thinking about." / "There's no difference. The past is our future." / "That is not true. We can transcend our past." / "Have you?"

- How foolish to believe we have any idea of what is relaly going on around us or that permanency is an earthly option.

- "She loves you, Mark. She's fighting it, but she does. To get through to her it's going to take a lot of faith on your part - enough for both of you. Macy's greatest hurts have come from those who were closest to her. She wants to get close to you. But think of the risk that poses to her. Everything inside her tells her to run. It's self-preservation. And that's a pretty powerful instinct." / "How do you break through that?" / She looked at me for a moment and I saw the answer in her eyes. "With love. Unconditional, unrelenting love."

- I guess it's never too late to find a home.

- I have learned first hand that one well-placed truth can counter a lifetime of ignorance.

- "I told myself it didn't matter. Hearts do that."

- "It was like she'd already given away that part of her heart."

- "That's like asking Mrs. Lincoln how the play was."

- I have come to believe that there are moments too profound to be contained in time.

- But in the meantime make the most of every moment you are blessed to have. Love. Hurt. Laugh. Cry. Dance. Stumble. And drink lots of chocolate!!!

- Remember, in the end what really matters is that you love. You'll make mistakes every day, but somehow love just washes them away like a wave cleansing the beach, and each day you start anew.

- I've come to know that our families are a canvas on which we paint our greatest hopes - imperfect and sloppy, for we are all amateurs at life, but if we do not focus too much on our mistakes, a miraculous picture emerges. And we learn that it's not the beaty of the image that warrants our gratitude - it's the chance to pain.

- Everyone brings baggage into a relationship and the two of us have more than our share. But that's just life. I once read that love is like a rose: we fixate on the blossom, but ti's the thorny stem that keeps it alive and aloft. I think marriage is like that. Like my father said, the things of greatest value are the things we fight for. And in the end, if we do it right, we value the stem far more than the blossom.