Melrose

“I wonder if the crows were mourning their fallen member. Given so many had flown in from all directions to join the mourning (or lynch mob), the fake crow must have resembled a much-loved muckity-muck member of the tribe. Would they mourn a crow they didn’t know? Humans do. I have, for the victims of 9/11, for children shot in schools, for fictional characters no less real than a fake crow.”
― Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles

“I stand at the window looking out, trying to remember the truths that nature always brings home. That what lies before me is not all
there is. That time is ever passing, and not only when I notice. That strife and pain are no more unexpected than pleasure and joy. That merely by breathing I belong to the eternal.”
― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

“Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.”
― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“The light that renders a crow incandescent in the afternoon is the same light that only minutes later tenders the gift of twilight, when colors fade and all the world becomes a crow.”
― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year