“Isn’t it odd,” Maryam said. “Just like that, a completely unknown person is a part of their family forever. Well, of course that’s true of a birth child, too, but … I don’t know, this seems more astonishing.” “To me, both are astonishing,” Dave said. “I remember before Bitsy was born, I used to worry she might not be compatible with the two of us. I told Connie, ‘Look at how long we took deciding whom we’d marry, but this baby’s waltzing in out of nowhere, not so much as a background check or a personality quiz. What if it turns out we don’t have any shared interests?’ ”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Digging to America
“You belong,” he told her. “You belong just as much as I do, or, who, or Bitsy or … It’s just like Christmas. We all think the others belong more.”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Digging to America
“The excuses she’d been about to offer—New York, Farah’s visit—suddenly seemed transparent. Instead, she told the truth. “I’m afraid it might be awkward, though.” “Awkward! Nonsense. We’re all grownups.” This argument came as a disappointment; Maryam wasn’t sure why. What had she wanted Bitsy to say? A pinch of injury tightened her chest. She said, “I know your father feels I didn’t handle things very well.” “Now, is that in any way relevant to this discussion? We’re talking about a simple little, normal little family get-together,” Bitsy said. “Shoot, we should just shanghai you.” Shanghai. As a verb, it was unfamiliar. Maybe it meant something like “lynch.” Maryam said, “Yes, perhaps you should,” in a tone that must have sounded more bitter than she had intended, because Bitsy said, “Well, forgive me, Maryam. I’m a meddlesome person; I realize that.” Which she was, in fact. But Maryam said, “Oh, no, Bitsy, you’re very kind. You were very sweet to call.” And then, trying to match Bitsy’s energy, “But you haven’t told me what I can do for you! Please, give me a task.” “Not a thing, thanks,” Bitsy said. “I’m getting stronger every day.”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Digging to America
“They knew all about Jin-Ho because Jin-Ho’s mother had telephoned two weeks after the babies’ arrival. “I hope you don’t mind my tracking you down,” she’d said. “You’re the only Yazdans in the book and I just couldn’t resist calling you to find out how things were going.” Jin-Ho, it seemed, was doing marvelously.”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Digging to America
“When Bitsy looked back on Jin-Ho’s arrival, it didn’t seem like a first meeting. It seemed that Jin-Ho had been traveling toward them all along and Bitsy’s barrenness had been part of the plan, foreordained so that they could have their true daughter.”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Digging to America
Anne Tyler
Born place: in Minneapolis, Minnesota, The United States
Born date October 25, 1941
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“winter wonderland
We snowshoe to the river. Take gorgeous and times it by ten. The trees in the forest are heavy, their limbs sagging, the brilliant white snow glimmering by the reflection of the moon. I think I’m walking in a dream.
What I didn’t know is how close Ava’s cabin is to the dollhouse. There is a shortcut up the back of the hill, along the side ridge of trees. And before I know it, Teague and I are on the shore of the rumbling, spitting, ice-cold, mostly frozen river.
My heart is shivering. “Please tell me we don’t have to cross this thing.”
Teague smiles. “You’ll see.”
We snowshoe a ways up the shore of the river, until he stops, takes off his pack, and sets it down on the ice.
“We could possibly get across by foot,” he tells me as he effortlessly climbs up a tree. “But this is more fun.”
He pulls down a handle attached to a pulley thingamajig, and I suddenly realize we are going to be flying across the river, like circus performers on a trapeze.
I’m going first.
Teague straps me in, attaching the pulley to a cable suspended across the water.
He checks and rechecks all the cords, making sure they are snug. “You’re set!” he says, smiling at me.
I shimmy up the tree and, holding the trapeze bar tight, leap out over the crackling glacial ice.
On the other side I scream with exhilaration.
My voice echoes across the forest, waking, I’m sure, every moose within miles. I can’t stop smiling as I unhook myself and hurl the bar as hard as I can back over the wire toward Teague. He makes fast work, joining me in a matter of minutes. He is quiet in his confidence. His hands are warm, and I hold one as the two of us walk together up the snow-covered steps to the dollhouse cabin.”
― Megan Shull, quote from Amazing Grace
“I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight... I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, quote from Being Peace
“она была цельной натурой, начисто лишённой нюансов”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominpappa's Memoirs
“Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.”
― Thomas Aquinas, quote from Summa Theologica, 5 Vols
“They know these mornings well and love them desperately because they cannot last - these people who know that nothing lasts.”
― Peter S. Beagle, quote from A Fine and Private Place
Blood and Chocolate
The Last Wish
The Garden of Eden
Angel
The Young Elites
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