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Quote by Tiisetso Maloma

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Daily Grace & Ubuntu Stoicism: For Yourself and the World

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Tiisetso Maloma

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“Dried leaves that stomp on other dried leaves-- This is man. Snails pretending to have tortoise shells-- This is man. We're so good, aren't we, at saying we're not cold-- Assuring others even as we shiver and turn blue. But I know you're lying, you might as well fold, Because I'm pretending to be pink while shivering, too.”

TruthLyingPoetryFearRelationshipsPrideVulnerabilityFragilityFacadesExposing Fears
Book:Can I Tell You Something?
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“My birthday is in March, and that year it fell during an especially bright spring week, vivid and clear in the narrow residential streets where we lived just a handful of blocks south of Sunset. The night-blooming jasmine that crawled up our neighborhood's front gate released its heady scent at dusk, and to the north, the hills rolled charmingly over the horizon, houses tucked into the brown. Soon, daylight savings time would arrive, and even at early nine, I associated my birthday with the first hint of summer, with the feeling in classrooms of open windows and lighter clothing and in a few months no more homework. My hair got lighter in spring, from light brown to nearly blond, almost like my mother's ponytail tassel. In the neighborhood gardens, the agapanthus plants started to push out their long green robot stems to open up to soft purples and blues.”

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Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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“My soup arrived. Crusted with cheese, golden at the edges. The waiter placed it carefully in front of me, and I broke through the top layer with my spoon and filled it with warm oniony broth, catching bits of soaking bread. The smell took over the table, a warmingness. And because circumstances rarely match, and one afternoon can be a patchwork of both joy and horror, the taste of the soup washed through me. Warm, kind, focused, whole. It was easily, without question, the best soup I had ever had, made by a chef who found true refuge in cooking.”

WarmthRose EdelsteinFrench Onion Soup
Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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“The room filled with the smell of warming butter and sugar and lemon and eggs, and at five, the timer buzzed and I pulled out the cake and placed it on the stovetop. The house was quiet. The bowl of icing was right there on the counter, ready to go, and cakes are best when just out of the oven, and I really couldn't possibly wait, so I reached out to the side of the cake pan, to the least obvious part, and pulled off a warm spongy chunk of deep gold. Iced it all over with chocolate. Popped the whole thing into my mouth.”

SmellIngredientsCakeRose EdelsteinLemon Cake
Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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“My birthday cake was her latest project because it was not from a mix but instead built from scratch- the flour, the baking soda, lemon-flavored because at eight that had been my request; I had developed a strong love for sour. We'd looked through several cookbooks together to find just the right one, and the smell in the kitchen was overpoweringly pleasant. To be clear: the bite I ate was delicious. Warm citrus-baked batter lightness enfolded by cool deep dark swirled sugar.”

SourMother And DaughterBirthday CakeRose EdelsteinLemon Flavor
Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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“What I taste, I said, reading from my page, is what I remember from my last Dorito, plus the chemicals that are kind of like that taste, and then my zoned-out mind that doesn't really care what it actually tastes like. Remembering, chemicals, zoning. It is a magical combo. All these parts form together to make a flavor sensation trick that makes me want to eat the whole bag and then maybe another bag. Do you have another bag? asked a skateboard guy, licking his fingers. No, I said. In conclusion, I said, a Dorito asks nothing of you, which is its great gift. It only asks that you are not there.”

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Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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“On the kitchen counter, she'd set out the ingredients: Flour bag, sugar box, two brown eggs nestled in the grooves between tiles. A yellow block of butter blurring at the edges. A shallow glass bowl of lemon peel. I toured the row. This was the week of my ninth birthday, and it had been a long day at school of cursive lessons, which I hated, and playground yelling about point scoring, and the sunlit kitchen and my warm-eyed mother were welcome arms, open. I dipped a finger into the wax baggie of brown-sugar crystals, murmured yes, please, yes.”

IngredientsBirthday CakeRose EdelsteinLane EdelsteinLemon Cake
Book:The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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