“Sister, why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Cage the animals at night?"
"Well..." She looked up and out through the barred window before answering me."We don't want to, Jennings, but we have to. You see, the animals that are given to us we have to take care of. If we didn't cage them up in one place, we might lose them, they might get hurt or damaged. It's not the best thing, but it's the only way we have to take care of them."
"But if somebody loved one them," I asked, "wouldn't it be a good idea to let them have one? To keep, I mean?"
"Yes, it would be. But not everyone would love them and take care of them as you would. I wish I could give them all away tomorrow." She looked at me. There were tears in her eyes. "But I can't. My heart would break if I saw just one of those animals lying by the wayside uncared for, unloved. No, Jennings. It's better if we keep them together.”
Source: They Cage the Animals at Night: The True Story of an Abandoned Child's Struggle for Emotional Survival
“Granma's name was Bonnie Bee. I knew that when I heard him late at night say, 'I kin ye, Bonnie Bee,' he was saying, 'I love ye,' for the feeling was in the words.”
Source: The Education of Little Tree
“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair." Douglas MacArthur”
Source: The Shack, Merry and a Cat Named Cha-moan
“We're all family--the only family we've got. It doesn't have to be blood.”
Source: Don't Breathe a Word
“We must be careful more than ever what we let our hearts believe in.”
“Mothers are inscrutable beings to their sons, always. ("The Higgler")”
Source: Dusky Ruth and Other Stories
“The smallest a family can be is two members, and that was Jules and me.”
Source: Lullabies for Little Criminals
“As I child, I came to this idea with a horrified fascination. Once upon a time, I wasn’t here. Before that, my parents weren’t here. And before that…”
Source: A Lie About My Father: A Memoir
“Blood is thicker than water, I know, but it's unnatural stuff to drink so much of. (“The Wife Of Ted Wickham”)”
Source: Dusky Ruth and Other Stories
“When dancing with a pit bull, it's always best to let him lead.”
Source: Eden Fading