In life, each person can take one of two attitudes; to build or to plant. The builders might labor years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they are doing. Then they find they are hemmed in by their walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.

Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.

—From The Prologue of Birds, a novel by Paulo Coelho. Sent in by John E. Gannon of Indian River, MI.