A summer apart changes people. s
Whenever I'm with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.
If you remember nothing else, remember this: Inspiration from outside one's self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: It changes the face of the world.
My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.
One of the marks of a truly great mind, I had discovered, is the ability to feign stupidity on demand.
It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it.
The spectrum on the list is very broad. It includes leftists who think that whiny liberals should be stuffed in a sack and drowned.
There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.
My thoughts, I guess, are bitter; who but the bitter have thoughts?
. . . in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
I was raised by a mother who was a Sunday school teacher and a father who worked hard. Together they taught me to give back.