Honor

by Elif Shafak

Coffee was like love, they said, the more patient you were with it, the better it would taste.

When you kneaded bread, the earth seeped into your veins, solid and strong. When you grilled meat, the spirit of the animal spoke to you, and you had to learn to respect it. When you cleaned fish, you heard the gush of the water where it once swam, and you had to marinate it tenderly, so as to wash off the memory of the river from its fins.

you got used to staring at the pavement. You could

If they knew you carried a heart of glass, they would break it.