Tara Rock

“It’s winter that raises the apple from the earth. The bitter cold, the ice like knives, the crystals of ice underground that cut into the hard coat and breach the soft, pale place inside where root and stem and leaf are one. The apple won’t be coddled. Until it knows true suffering, the seed won’t sprout at all. The tree will never live.”
― Olivia Hawker, One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow

“Free your mind,
ignorance is a prison.
Liberate your heart,
greed is a jail.
Release your soul,
arrogance is a cell.

Embrace knowledge,
education is independence.
Acquire understanding,
awareness is freedom.
Utilize enlightenment,
perception is power.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Let go of the past.
Embrace the present.
Reach for the future.

The past is in your bosom.
The present is in your lap.
The future is in your hands.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“After we had loaded the last one, I backed the pickup around and drove down the twisting road to the big truck. As we rounded the final curve, we noticed there was a strange pickup parked near the U-Haul. Two men got out of it and looked around furtively, but did not see us. They tiptoed over to the truck, their curiosity piqued by an apparently abandoned U-Haul. They tried the sliding back door gingerly, and found it would open. They gave it a push. The loose bees inside rushed out toward the light and enveloped the two men in a furious buzzing cloud. The men were both heavy, with ample beer bellies, but they ran like jackrabbits to their pickup and drove off at top speed, careening from one side of the road to the other as they tried to brush bees from their heads. I’ll wager that is the last time either of them meddled with an abandoned truck.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees