14 Quotes by Steven Rowley

A Complete List of Lily's NicknamesSillyLittleLilMonkeyBunnyBunny RebbitMousseTiny MouseGooseSilly GooseMongooseMonsterMonster.comPeanutPenuchePinochleSweet PeaWalnutWalnut BrianCopper Bottom CrazyBaby PuppyGuppyOld LadyCrankCrankyCranky PantsSqueakySqueaky FromeTigerDingbatMushMushy FaceHipsterSlinksterSlinkyBeanDog

The sun rises with a surprising intensity, a sign that June Gloom has cleared the runway and July is on approach. We are both tired, and it would've been to return to our bed after our morning walk, read from a book maybe, drift lazily in and out of sleep. But the sun beckons with a blazingly confrontational message: There is darkness, but there is also light. To stay in bed would be to embrace the darkness, the seizures, the octopus. To go outside is to embrace the light.

We bring champagne to Franklin and Jeffrey, and I offer a final toast, 'Wishing you all good things in your life together.' Short, simple, to the point. I look at Meredith, relaxed in her ivory gown, my sister is all grown up. I'm grateful we did our growing up together.

Jenny and I once talked about how we manage to live despite the knowledge that we are all going to die. What's the point of it all? Why bother getting up in the morning when faced with such futility? Or is it the promise of death that inspires life? That we must grab what we can while there's still time? Is it the not knowing if today is the day that keeps us going? But what if this is the day? What if the hour is here? How do you stand? How do you breathe? How do you go on?

We’re too often guilty of thinking that our parents arrived on this planet as fully functioning adults on the day that we were born. That they don’t have pasts of their own prior to our birth. That the father is not also a son, that the mother is not also a child. My mother had a tough beginning, enduring things I know little about. And yet I more often discount her pain and overvalue mine

Lily thinks about this. "All of my memories are my favorite memories." I'm amazed by this. "Even the bad ones?" "Dogs don't remember bad memories." Envious, I scratch her on the velvet part of her chest. What an incredible way to live.

Dogs, on the other hand... dogs have pure souls. Look at me." I grab her chin and look straight into her eyes. "Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them. Especially you. Since the day I met you, you have done nothing but make my life better in every possible way. Do you understand?

When I held my new puppy in my arms, I broke down in tears. Because I had fallen in love. Not somewhat in love. Not partly in love. Not in a limited amount. I fell fully in love with a creature I had known for all of nine hours.

We will lost everything that matters, or everything that matters will lose us. It is predestined, the nature of life.