The Creator made us for each other. Me here. Zelia there. Space was put between us by human error. But our hearts listened to divine will. - Louise Erdrich

a mother is a frayed net, you know. We stretch ourselves over everything we can. But there’s holes all over the place where things get through and we do everything we can and fathers and—you know, as parents, we try so hard. But we can’t do it all. We can’t completely protect. I think in a very odd sense, I want things to be in ordinary for my children, routine. I want things to be simple, you know, for them to cope with. But that’s not what the world is like. And that’s not even what they want. They want to grow. They want to grow in every way that they possibly can and that’s going to involve pain.

They both started laughing in that desperate high-pitched way people laugh when their hearts are broken.

...whom he had saved from a life of excessive freedom