Before we begin:
Today's prayer comes courtesy of Kansas and my mother.

from notebook up late reading books that ought to be packed or given away
(or,
I will never box these all up successfully.)

It probably sounds funny to some of you and grotesque to the rest of you, but I'll tell you something, my friend: weird love's better than no love at all.
-- Stephen King, The Green Mile
*
"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer."
-- EB White, Charlotte's Web (oh-hush.)
*
"What do you hate most?" he asks.
"A lie. And you?"
"Ownership," he says. "When you leave me, forget me."
..
We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, character we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.
-- Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
*
"You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the morning gone long before that time."
-- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
*
The morning stretches on; merciful time. A lace-edged deadline.

[completely aside: because some of you get discouraged and cliches are good medicine]