I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us
Alice HoffmanRead
My grandmother told me once that when you lose somebody you think you've lost the whole world as well, but that's not the way things turn out in the end. Eventually, you pick yourself up and look out the window, and once you do you see everything that was there before the world ended is out there still. There are the same apple trees and the same songbirds, and over our heads, the very same sky that shines like heaven, so far above us we can never hope to reach such heights.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Losing someone feels overwhelming, but in time, life continues to present beauty and familiarity.
This quote reflects on the profound emotional impact of loss, suggesting that while the pain of losing someone can make it seem as if the entire world is affected, life continues to offer its beauty. The speaker's grandmother imparts wisdom that, ultimately, the world retains its wonders, symbolized by the apple trees, songbirds, and sky, which remain constants in our lives despite personal grief.
Themes
LossGriefGrowthLifeNature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a memorial service to provide comfort.
More from Alice Hoffman
All quotes →Before she realized he was next to her, he had placed his hands over hers on the countertop, then hooped his fingers through hers. Gretel looked up at him, so startled she might as well have been shot. 'I just wanted to wake you up', he said. Which is exactly what he did. One look at him and her heart was racing. One look, and whatever had been before was all over.
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Do people choose the art that inspires them — do they think it over, decide they might prefer the fabulous to the real? For me, it was those early readings of fairy tales that made me who I was as a reader and, later on, as a storyteller.
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I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself
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My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who's different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.
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It was the sort of beauty you feel so deeply it becomes contagious and somehow makes you feel beautiful too.
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