Belle Townsend Books & Quotes

“Did you know that attack dogs are often female? Did you know that women protect with the most ferocity in most animal kingdoms, that our teeth are for more than smiling? Us girls are many things, and weak has never been one of them.”

Women Family Feminism Strength Empowerment Motherhood

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“How often do we contradict ourselves without ever knowing?”

Truth Knowing Contradiction

Author:Belle Townsend

“I am suffocated by my own being just as much as I am grateful for it. I love everything in this way: in such a way that I cannot bear it. I know what it is to love something so much that every moment is something both loved and lost.”

Love Poetry Time Change Loss Consciousness Being Impermanence

Author:Belle Townsend

“I have started to spend my Fridays playing tennis with a boy from my class, and he said we would only do it as long as the weather permitted. I have started looking forward to Fridays. It is getting colder everyday, this is the worst part of living in New England: how quickly the seasons change.”

Time Nature Change Cold Seasons Impermanence New England

Author:Belle Townsend

“I have started to spend my Fridays playing tennis with a boy from my class, and he said we would only do it as long as the weather permitted. I have started looking forward to Fridays. It is getting colder everyday, this is the worst part of living in New England: how quickly the seasons change. But what a joy it is to have something, anything, just for a little while. What a privilege it is to hold something so precious, so small, so unspoken, and to wince when you have to let go. What a treat to have so much life grace these fingertips, to love so much that I now know such loss. What a curse to have it all move so quickly, to have it be out of reach so fast.”

Time Change Loss Seasons Impermanence Time Passing

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“And when I say I love you, I mean that I will see the ugliest parts of you, and I will still love you enough to know that is not who you are. That is only what you have to survive.”

Love Love Quotes Relationship Relationship Quotes Unconditional Love

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“The end of the world does not require our recognition, only our quiet acceptance.”

Acceptance Revolution Capitalism Status Quo

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“Perhaps this is what life is - just being with each other. And perhaps this is also what death is, because the fossils of the amphibian and the mammal were found, curled up together: perhaps because of broken ribs and shared heat, or perhaps because of the universal need we have for each other. A flood buried the two together, alive, and although they sang unheard pleas, they were singing together.”

Inspirational Loss Flood Extinction Togetherness Universal Love

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“To live was to recover, and to recover was to survive. To survive was exhausting, but it was surviving, still. And what else is there?”

Poetry Loss Survival Coronavirus Pandemic Will Extinction

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“To survive is to face the truth that man made this extinction. Survival and grief are too often felt together. How do we live in a world without the millions who died in the pandemic? How do we live in the same world with those responsible for the loss of so many of us?”

Death Poetry Loss Capitalism Accountability Pandemic Extinction Covid Capitalism Quotes

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“We forget we are making history whether or not we think we are worthy of being remembered. We are here. History books are always being written. The flood is here, and there are countless lifeless bodies in the current. The flood does not give a shit. It just floods. Every day there is a new strain, a new disaster, or a new reason to stop fighting. Still, we are here. Fighting to survive is not new. But, let us not forget that evolution has always been a function of extinction. Life must go on, somehow. Overwhelming loss suffocates us just as much as the pollution. But, every time there is another reason to not fight, we must remember: Those of us who fight the hardest, who evolve despite, are those of us who shape the backbones of those who are to follow us.”

Fighting Loss History Survival Coronavirus Pandemic Covid Survival Quotes

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“It is not supposed to be this way. I want to see the natural togetherness of humanity. Of life. I look around and I see lions, but I want to see ants. I see dominance and I want to see cooperation; I see extinction and I want to see sustainment.”

Community Socialism Participation Domination Extinction Marxism Socialism Quotes Universal Love

Author:Belle Townsend

“I am the body, and I am the rocks in the pockets, and I am the water. There is no evading myself.”

Life Self Awareness Permanence Evasion Suffocation

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“And when I moved back to Kentucky, I forgot about waving to other drivers. I forgot about taking that one second to acknowledge who you are sharing a road with. I forgot about how much all of us want so terribly to be together.”

Poetry Quotes Hospitality Togetherness Kentucky Southern Hospitality

Author:Belle Townsend

“And when I say I love you, I mean that you can show me your darkest fire your soul can produce, and I will love you enough to sit with you until the smoke clears. Leave your disclaimers at the door. There is no convincing me to not love you.”

Poetry Fire Smoke Unconditional Love Love Poetry Relationship Poetry

Book:Push and Pull

Source: Push and Pull

“The quiet regrowth of a forest, fertilized only by its own burnt flesh, is what I think of when I think of survival. When we are able to look death in the face and prosper because of it, and not just despite it, we prove that to live is to contradict.”

Poetry Life Quotes Fire Starting Over Nature Poetry Life Cycle Regrowth

Author:Belle Townsend

Belle Townsend Books

Push and Pull

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