Unless (Carol Shields)

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"In my new life--the summer of the year 2000--I am attempting to 'count my blessings.' Everyone I know advises me to take up this repellant strategy, as though they really believe a dramatic loss can be replaced by the renewed appreciation of all one has been given."

"My daughter is living like a vagabond on the streets of Toronto, but even so I had to have four yards of screened bark mulch delivered to the house this morning, $141.91, including haulage."

From Unless, a novel by Carol Shields (HarperCollins, 2002).