cycads and ferns

“Before killing a man, I always found it calming to regard the trees. Lying on my back in the long grass fringing the King’s Road and gazing at the green and brown matrix above, branches creaking and leaves whispering in the late-morning breeze, brought a welcome serenity. I had found this to be true ever since my first faltering steps into this forest as a boy ten years before. When the heart began to thud and sweat beaded my brow, the simple act of looking up at the trees brought a respite, one made sweeter by the knowledge that it would be short lived.”
― Anthony Ryan

“In Korean, that word is jeong. It is one of the most meaningful word in my language. It is even more meaningful than sarang, which is the “love,” because jeong is not a duty. It is that feeling of the glad heart when you see someone.”
― Yoon Choi, Skinship

“I could have said their sleep is a challenge to us , to wake up….I could have said they sleep in sorrow for us who sleep through so many levels of our lives…they tell us that we, too, are guarding a tomb. We don’t know what’s in it. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps what was once in it has gone. We’re scared to look. But we go on guarding it.”
― Paul Griffiths, The Tomb Guardians

“The certainty’s gone, as you say. But that’s exactly what you just said distinguishes our age from theirs. We can’t go back, or pretend we are back. We have to go on from where we are. In doubt.”
― Paul Griffiths, The Tomb Guardians