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Terry Tempest Williams

Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

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Famous Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

“I am obsessed by the idea of silence. I went through an entire library studying art, artists and their critics, philosophers, too, on the meaning and significance of the color white. I dreamed of white birds and white bears. I thought about the white pages of my mother's journals. I became enthralled with John Cage and his work, 4'33”, his masterpiece of ambient sound. Rauschenberg, too. And then at some point I let go. What sticks to the soul is what gets placed on the page. Maybe that's the unknown part, the mystery, the power of the empty page.”

ArtIdeasSoulMotherArtistSoundWhiteSilenceStudyMysteryColorBearsLetting GoPagesBirdEmptySticksCriticsLibraryPhilosopherObsessedSignificanceJournalCagesMasterpieceAmbientColor WhiteStudying ArtWhite Birds
Author:Terry Tempest Williams
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“I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change.”

IfsI CanMotherFoundBearsBirdCapacityRiversGrandmotherDiscoveringRefugeMy GrandmotherCapacity To LoveLove Death
Book:Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
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“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.”

WayBelieveHeartEndsEarthSongI BelievePrayerExistenceTeachPrayingMy HeartMessagesBirdI Believe InEach DayI PrayBenedictionInvocation
Book:Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
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“The hostility of this landscape teaches me how to be quiet and unobtrusive, how to find grace among spiders with a poisonous bite. I sat on a lone boulder in the midst of the curlews. By now, they had grown accustomed to me. This too, I found encouraging-that in the face of stressful intrusions, we can eventually settle in. One begins to almost trust the intruder as a presence that demands greater intent toward life. On a day like today when the air is dry and smells of salt, I have found my open space, my solitude, and sky. And I have found the birds who require it.”

TodayFacesFoundSpaceTeachGreaterGraceAirSkySolitudeQuietDemandBirdSmellLandscapeSettlingSatDryMidstBitesSaltAccustomedSpidersHostilityStressfulLonePoisonousIntrusionBouldersOpen SpacesIntruders
Author:Terry Tempest Williams
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“I wonder how, among the Fremont, mothers and daughters shared their world. Did they walk side by side along the lake edge? What stories did they tell while weaving strips of bulrush into baskets? How did daughters bury their mothers and exercise their grief? What were the secret rituals of women? I feel certain they must have been tied to birds.”

WorldFeelsHas BeensStoriesMotherCertainSidesWalksGriefSecretWonderExerciseBirdDaughterEdgesLakesRitualTiedBasketsMother And DaughterWeaving
Book:Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
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