jasmin

“A little girl shouldn’t have to worry about her entire family,’ Grandpa says to me one afternoon….

‘What?’ I ask, not because I didn’t hear what he said, but because I’m confused. Of course a little girl should worry about her entire family. That’s what little girls do.

‘I just…’ He steps closer to me. ‘I just think…you deserve to be a kid.”
― Jennette McCurdy, I'm Glad My Mom Died

“Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“Might I,” quavered Mary, “might I have a bit of earth?”

In her eagerness she did not realize how queer the words would sound and that they were not the ones she had meant to say. Mr. Craven looked quite startled.

“Earth!” he repeated. “What do you mean?”

“To plant seeds in—to make things grow—to see them come alive,” Mary faltered.

He gazed at her a moment and then passed his hand quickly over his eyes.

“Do you—care about gardens so much,” he said slowly.

“I didn’t know about them in India,” said Mary. “I was always ill and tired and it was too hot. I sometimes made little beds in the sand and stuck flowers in them. But here it is different.”

Mr. Craven got up and began to walk slowly across the room.

“A bit of earth,” he said to himself, and Mary thought that somehow she must have reminded him of something. When he stopped and spoke to her his dark eyes looked almost soft and kind.

“You can have as much earth as you want,” he said. “You remind me of some one else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want,” with something like a smile, “take it, child, and make it come alive.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

“If I were on fire
who could I count on
to water me down?

If I were a pile of ashes
who could I count on
to gather me in a pretty urn?

If I were nothing but dust
would anyone chase the wind
trying to piece me back together?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X