When your best friend interviews for her dream job—and doesn't get it:

"You are more than this situation. You are more than this job. You are more than your work life." Don't waste her time with any dreck about how this job wouldn't have actually been her dream job. That's not nearly the point. You know it. She knows it. And that cannot be helped. But what you can help her with is regaining her sense of perspective.

When your sister's husband moves out:

You knew your literature major would come in handy eventually; and here it is, finally, the time to quote Rilke. "Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final." We all have moments of pain that seem inescapable.