I carry a notebook around with me. When I read a sentence I find particularly beautiful ("her heart a red cup of fierceness tucked among ordinary things") or when someone says something particularly hilarious ("I didn't hear you because when I walk I hear the music from Peter and the Wolf in my head"), or something that resonates in some way, I write it down. Sometimes one sentence, put together in just that way brings a little more sense into my world. I like quotes. I like bits and pieces. I like the way other people string words together.

When Jake called and told me that he didn't think he'd be back, he was in China. He said, "I've been thinking about it, and I don't know if I'll be coming home at all."

I have one of those "quote of the day" widgets on my computer. The day after that call it said: "When someone walks away from you, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anyone who has left."

I don't know why it is that if someone else says it, it means something more. I assume that's true for all of us. Why else do we clip newspapers? Quote songs? Read a stranger's blog on a Web site, for that matter?

Sometimes it's that someone else has found the words I can't.

Sometimes it's knowing I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Sometimes the fact that it's someone else gives the words the credibility I can't find in my own head.

After staring at it for a while, I wrote it on a Post-It and stuck to it to the wall by the door. Later, it moved to the bathroom mirror.

Now it's on a bulletin board, and now it has a different meaning: It's not merely helping me get through the day, it's a reminder that I did. It's a reminder that I'm meant to do whatever it is I'm meant to do, and that anyone who doesn't feel the need to be a part of that doesn't have to. It's my destiny. If there's a partner there, dandy — but that's not the point. The point is it's mine, regardless of who comes and goes.