#wing

Vous travaillez pour l'armee, madame?' (You are working for the army?), a Frenchwoman said to me early in the Vietnam war, on hearing I had three sons. ↗

— Adrienne Rich

#childbearing #children #motherhood #right-wing-politics #war

I wanted only a familiar voice, someone who knew me. Not some earlier, larval version of myself. . . ↗

— Jennifer Haigh

#companionship #family #growing-up #secrets #sisters

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got. ↗

— Kurt Cobain

#foreshadowing #death

Sometimes in storm weather the shore had fluttered with disabled swallows. They crouched lower for his approach, without strength to escape. In his hands they pulsed with that same pulse. He had taken a bird and warmed it between his hands or inside his jacket, brought the life back until it was able to fly. Sometimes, released from his hands, they circled once around him before flying away; in gratitude, or so the child had believed--and the belief had survived all the man's science. ↗

— Barry Unsworth

#growing-up #reason #faith

George was full of hatred. Of his own weakness and stupidity, of his magic, of the stubbornness and the pride of Beatrice and Marit, and, last of all, hatred of Dr. Gharn, who had started it all. But the hatred swayed to pity. Then to hopelessness. Then back to anger. Every once in a great while, he felt a moment of peace, usually when he caught a glimpse of Beatrice and Marit together. He loved them both in different ways. But that could not be. He turned away, and the cycle began again. ↗

— Mette Ivie Harrison

#conflicting-emotions #despair #emotional-upheaval #hate #love

We teach what we need to learn. And we teach it until we get it. ↗

— Irene Tomkinson

#learning #listening #maturity #teaching #family

Step-parents, those fairy tale villains, Have been given a bad name. They're easy targets. When the family goes awry How easy to blame them. I was blessed by the right steps... ↗

— Eileen Granfors

#families #growing-up #step-parents #family

Stop using him, and start protecting him. I know he thinks he doesn't need it, but sometimes he does. Sometimes we all do. ↗

— Rachel Caine

#family #frank-collins #ghost-town #growing-up #morganville-vampires

If you truly want to know a person, talk to their enemies. ↗

— Jamie Leanne Gaines

#friendship #hate #knowing #knowledge #friendship

At their core, Tiger Eyes, Forever..., and Sally J. Freeman are all books about teenage issues, but to an adult reader, the parents' story lines seem to almost overshadow their daughters. I'm bringing an entirely new set of experiences to these novels now, and my reward is a fresh set of story lines that i missed the first time around. I'm sure that in twenty or thirty years I'll read these books again and completely identify with all the grandparent characteristics. That's the wonderful thing about Judy Blume - you can revisit her stories at any stage in life and find a character who strikes a deep chord of recognition. I've been there, I'm in the middle of this, someday that'll be me. The same characters, yet somehow completely different. (Beth Kendrick) ↗

— Jennifer O'Connell

#friendships #growing-up #judy-blume #teenagers #experience