

“When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the tree with the lights in it.” It was for this tree I searched through the peach orchards of summer, in the forests of fall and down winter and spring for years. Then one day I was walking along Tinker creek and thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing that like being for the first time see, knocked breathless by a powerful glance. The flood of fire abated, but I’m still spending the power. Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells un-flamed and disappeared. I was still ringing. I had been my whole life a bell and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck. I have since only very rarely seen the tree with the lights in it. The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.”
― Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
― Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“I bless God daily for the bonds of affection that have held us together and brought us through the pestilence. To be loved and honored for who we are, and not what our status represents, is surely the lesson He wanted us to learn when he sent His son to live as a carpenter and not as a king. The future will be bright indeed when even the humblest are given the chance to prove their worth.”
―
―

“Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”
― Their Eyes Were Watching God
― Their Eyes Were Watching God
Chandler’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Chandler’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Children's, Classics, Cookbooks, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, Memoir, Music, Non-fiction, Self help, Spirituality, and Travel
Polls voted on by Chandler
Lists liked by Chandler