Food for thought from "The Whistling Season" by Ivan Doig:

"I looked up destiny in your big dictionary before going home yesterday, to make sure. 'One's lot in life.' That seemed rather short shrift, so I tried fate, and that was better." Rose took another reciting breath. " 'That in the nature of the universe by which things come to be as the are.' "

The mothers dispatched their hearts and souls out the door every morning as they sent waist-high children to saddle up and ride miles to school.

He faced around to me now. His deflated attitude alarmed me. How could destiny leak out of a person so fast?

In impetuosity begins responsibility . . .

(in a cemetery) The patience of stones. How they await us.