Home > Work > Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place QUOTES

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place QUOTES

1 " I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

2 " Grief dares us to love once more. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

3 " The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

4 " Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind that brings an end to suffering. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

5 " What is it about the relationship of a mother that can heal or hurt us? Her womb is the first landscape we inhabit. It is here we learn to respond - to move, to listen, to be nourished and grow. In her body we grow to be human as our tails disappear and our gills turn to lungs. Our maternal environment is perfectly safe - dark, warm, and wet. It is a residency inside the Feminine.

When we outgrow our mother's body, our cramps become her own. We move. She labors. Our body turns upside down in hers as we journey through the birth canal. She pushes in pain. We emerge, a head. She pushes one more time, and we slide out like a fish. Slapped on the back by the doctor, we breath. The umbilical cord is cut - not at our request. Separation is immediate. A mother reclaims her body, for her own life. Not ours. Minutes old, our first death is our own birth. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

6 " Today, I feel stronger, learning to live within the natural cycles of a day and to not expect too much of myself. As women, we hold the moon in our bellies. It is too much to ask to operate on full-moon energy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am in a crescent phase. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

7 " I admire how she protects her energy and understands her limitations. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

8 " I believe every woman should own at least one pair of red shoes. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

9 " I pray to the birds. I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day—the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

10 " I believe we must do things in our lives for the right reasons, because we enjoy doing them, with no expectation of getting something back in return. Otherwise, we are constantly being disappointed." She moved her turquoise bracelet back and forth on her wrist. "So I had two sons, John and Richard, because I wanted to, not because I thought they would rescue me in old age. I got out of all social organizations and clubs in my fifties so I could spend time with my grandchildren, not because they would give something back to Jack and me later on, but because that was what I wanted to do--and I have loved doing it. Believe me, these have been selfish decisions. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

11 " I believe that when we are fully present, we not only live well, we live well for others. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

12 " The birds and I share a natural history. It is a matter of rootedness, of living inside a place for so long that the mind and imagination fuse. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

13 " Perhaps we project on to starlings that which we deplore in ourselves: our numbers, our aggression, our greed, and our cruelty. Like starlings, we are taking over the world. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

14 " Suffering shows us what we are attached to—perhaps the umbilical cord between Mother and me has never been cut. Dying doesn't cause suffering. Resistance to dying does. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

15 " When Emily Dickinson writes, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” she reminds us, as the birds do, of the liberation and pragmatism of belief. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

16 " We usually recognize a beginning. Endings are more difficult to detect. Most often, they are realized only after reflection. Silence. We are seldom conscious when silence begins—it is only afterward that we realize what we have been a part of. In the night journeys of Canada geese, it is the silence that propels them. Thomas Merton writes, “Silence is the strength of our interior life.… If we fill our lives with silence, then we will live in hope. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

17 " Today, I feel stronger, learning to live within the natural cycles of a day and to not expect so much from myself. As women, we hold the moon in our bellies. It is too much to ask to operate on full-moon energy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am in a crescent phase. And the energy we expend emotionally belongs to the hidden side of the moon. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

18 " It’s strange how deserts turn us into believers. I believe in walking in a landscape of mirages, because you learn humility. I believe in living in a land of little water because life is drawn together. And I believe in the gathering of bones as a testament to spirits that have moved on. If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

19 " But, today, the idea of faith returns to me. Faith defies logic and propels us beyond hope because it is not attached to our desires. Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

20 " I have refused to believe that Mother will die. And by denying her cancer, even her death, I deny her life. Denial stops us from listening. I cannot hear what Mother is saying. I can only hear what I want. But denial lies. It protects us from the potency of a truth we cannot yet bear to accept. It takes our hands and leads us to places of comfort. Denial flourishes in the familiar. It seduces us with our own desires and cleverly constructs walls around us to keep us safe. "

― Terry Tempest Williams , Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place