It's impossible to write about Native life without humor-that's how people maintain sanity.
Women without children are also the best of mothers,often, with the patience,interest, and saving grace that the constant relationship with children cannot always sustain. I come to crave our talk and our daughters gain precious aunts. Women who are not mothering their own children have the clarity and focus to see deeply into the character of children webbed by family. A child is fortuante who feels witnessed as a peron,outside relationships with parents by another adult.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of non-parental figures in a child's life, emphasizing that women without children can contribute significantly to a child's development.
Louise Erdrich's quote reflects on the unique role that women without children play in the lives of children. She suggests that these women often possess the patience, insight, and ability to connect with children in ways that enhance their understanding and support, thus providing essential emotional and social development. The presence of non-parental adults, particularly those who can nurture and guide children, enriches a child's experience and allows for broader emotional support beyond their immediate family.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a women's empowerment event to highlight the importance of mentorship.
More from Louise Erdrich
All quotes βIt was just enough to sit there without words.
Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart.
The world tips away when we look into our children's faces.
...which causes me to wonder, my own purpose on so many days as humble as the spider's, what is beautiful that I make? What is elegant? What feeds the world?
Her mind was present because she was always gone. Her hands were filled because they grasped the meaning of empty. Life was simple. Her husband returned and she served him with indifferent patience this time. When he asked what had happened to her heat for him, she gestured to the west. The sun was setting. The sky was a body of fire.
Similar quotes
I owe undying gratitude to my patient parents.
My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.
My mother told me once that she had her talk with God whenever she started a new sweater: 'Please don't take me in the middle of the sweater.' And as soon as she finished knitting a sweater, and it was blocked and put together, she already had the wool to start the next sweater so that nothing bad would happen.
I don't care who is attacking my son. I still support him; I still love him.
The way to plan the family is natural family planning not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self, and so it destroys the gift of life in him or her
Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. "It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress. "I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff. "We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.