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Yet it is in the very dailiness, the exhaustive, repetitious dailiness, that the real power of Martha Ballard’s book lies. To extract the river crossings without noting the cold days spent “footing” stockings, to abstract the births without
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“You will be in positions that matter. Positions in which you can decide the
nature and quality of other people’s lives. Your errors may be irrevocable.
So when you enter those places of trust, or power, dream a little before you
think, so your thoughts, your solutions, your directions, your choices about
who lives and who doesn’t, about who flourishes and who doesn’t will be
worth the very sacred life you have chosen to live. You are not helpless.
You are not heartless. And you have time.”
― The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
nature and quality of other people’s lives. Your errors may be irrevocable.
So when you enter those places of trust, or power, dream a little before you
think, so your thoughts, your solutions, your directions, your choices about
who lives and who doesn’t, about who flourishes and who doesn’t will be
worth the very sacred life you have chosen to live. You are not helpless.
You are not heartless. And you have time.”
― The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
“I remember these things clearly because that was how my mother loved you, not through white lies and constant verbal affirmation, but in subtle observations of what brought you joy, pocketed away to make you feel comforted and cared for without even realizing it.”
― Crying in H Mart
― Crying in H Mart
“I saw what I had been fighting for: It was for me, a scared child, who had run away a long time ago to what I had imagined was a safer place. And hiding in this place, behind my invisible barriers, I knew what lay on the other side: Her side attacks. Her secret weapons. Her uncanny ability to find my weakest spots. But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was finally there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.”
― The Joy Luck Club
― The Joy Luck Club
“There’s a vast underground network for goodness at work in this world—a web of people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people…”
― A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
― A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Soph’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Soph’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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