Don't assume that it's too late to get involved - Mitch Albom

By now, the morning sun was just over the horizon and it came at me like a sidearm pitch between the houses of my old neighborhood. I shielded my eyes. This being early October, there were already piles of leaves pushed against the curb — more leaves than I remembered from my autumns here — andless open space in the sky. I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how much the trees have grown around your memories.

Once, lovers on faraway shores sat by candlelight and dipped ink to parchment, writing words that could not be erased. They took an evening to compose their thoughts, maybe the next evening as well.

"Have you ever considered how many living things there are on earth?" Cleo asked. "People. Animals. Birds. Fish. Trees. It makes you wonder how anyone could feel lonely. Yet humans do. It's a shame."
She looked to the sky, now a deep shade of purple. "We fear loneliness, Annie, but loneliness itself does not exist. It has no form. it is merely a shadow that falls over us. And just as shadows die when light changes, that sad feeling can depart once we see the truth."
"What's the truth?" Annie asked.
"That the end of loneliness is when someone needs you." The old woman smiled. "And the world is so full of need."