In reading, I often come across lines that strike a resonant note in my soul. These lines I call notable quotes. I'd like to share some of these with you. Some are from favorite books. Others are from books I might have enjoyed a little less. Nevertheless, as the following thoughts are so aptly expressed, not only have I saved them, but also would like to share them with you.

Hope they speak to you as well...

40TH BIRTHDAY

"On my fortieth birthday Lenna Rhodes invited me over for lunch. That's the tradition--when one of us has a birthday there's lunch, a nice present, and a good laughing afternoon to cover the fact that we've moved one more step down the staircase" (Juliette Skotchdopole, A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll)

APPRECIATING PEOPLE

"It s so often the way...the ones least expected have the most to give."
(Winifred Chappell, Blood Ties by Jennifer Lash).

BALTIMORE NOSTALGIA

“Back in Baltimore’s golden age, when the streetcars were still running and downtown was still the place to go and we had four top-notch department stores all on the same one block: Hutzler’s, Hochscild’s, Stewart’s, and Hecht’s...” (Rent-A-Back client, A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler)

BROKEN BONES

“They want dramatic details and there are no dramatic details. All broken leg stories are is being at the wrong place at the right time, and then snap goes the calcium.” (An Unfortunate Woman by Richard Brautigan)    [NEW]

CALIFORNIA WEATHER

"Outside the sun was an old warm friend. Sometimes I think California owns all the beautiful weather in the world--or is at least in charge of handing it out to the rest of the world after it's used there." (Weber Greston, A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll)

CHILDREN

"If they are not loved and welcomed simply for being themselves, then sure as day follows night, in the end they ll become something else."
(Nurse Biddy, Blood Ties by Jennifer Lash)

FALLING IN LOVE

When do people cross the line to love? Wake one morning not only with the full taste of it on the tongue, but the sureness the flavor will stay as long as we work to keep and appreciate it.
(Weber Greston, A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll)

FEELING FINE MATERIAL

"But he remembered it now. He remembered the way this kind of material made you feel when you touched it, like you’d crossed some invisible line between what was fine and what wasn’t, like you yourself were naked as the skin the material was meant to hide, that everything which normally stayed inside you was outside you now, out in the open where evrybody could see it, and you wanted them to, but there was no one nearby." (Ned Rose, The Oxygen Man by Steve Yarbrough)

GROWTH

"You only grow by ending something and by beginning something else even if these so-called endings and beginnings are illusions." (The World According to Garp by John Irving)

HEREDITY

"All the love in the world couldn’t prevent the awful truth: You passed on who you were." (Isabelle Goodrow, Isabelle and Amy by Elizabeth Strout)

"My life would never end, I saw, not even in my own Brenda Kay, because of those eyes turned to me and asking what to do, the only true victory any mother could ever hope for: the looking of a child, whether retarded or not, to you for what wisdom you could give away before you left for whatever reckoning you had with the G-d who d given you that wisdom in the first place." (Jewel Hilburn, Jewel by Bret Lott)

MOTHER'S INFLUENCE

"I liked it when my mother shaped me this way. Clay must feel happy in the good potter's hand." (Astrid, White Oleander by Janet Fitch)