Emily | Planned & Planted

“How do you describe how the presence of a creature can take you outside yourself, to a most exalted place?”
― Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

“Only a fool bemoans lost beauty while still in beauty's embrace, just of another sort.”
― Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

“The suburbs can seem anti-septic. Nature mowed and manicure to Better Homes and Gardens conformity. But wild things roam there that can't be tamed.”
― Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

“I see Banyan House for what it is: a home for women, a shaggy, worn, and vicious protector of the bruised, the tender. We grew up in that house, and in turn, it grew inward on us. It could tolerate no less than our full devotion, even in death. And when we began not to need it, it crumbled. A mirage that could not sustain itself without pain.”
― Thao Thai, Banyan Moon