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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Love might not conquer all, they realized, especially in a marriage between a black woman and a white man. Even nowadays. But mostly, love still carried more weight than pretty much anything. And they were hopeful.
“Most of the trouble in this world boils down to one person not recognizing the worth of another,” Gramps said. “But sometimes, that can be an advantage.”
People saw their skin, not their history.
Fear was a language common to all people, and nothing was more fearsome than being stolen from yourself.
She clicks, now, on the image of an old farmhouse with stone walls. Great potential, reads the ad. In need of a little TLC. Avery feels like the ad could be talking about her.
How much of yourself do you have to renounce in order to have the life you think you want?
Why should she have to wish for one thing, to be spared the pain of the other?
“At what point are you supposed to stop reacting to trauma?” Ebby had asked one day, when she was still seeing a therapist. “At what point are you supposed to stop thinking about it?”
Every moment in life is a confluence of events and you can’t see it all coming. You need to try not to, Ebby thinks. See it all. Otherwise, it leaves no room in your head to simply live.
Time matters, Ebby thinks as she types. Hours, minutes, seconds, can make a difference.
“There will always be men willing to steal the freedom of others if they think it will bring them an advantage,”
To tell your story was to experience a kind of freedom. To be able to share news of your adventures, to name your relations and favorite places, was to be a man.
Words have power. So does the absence of words. Sometimes, when people choose not to speak, their silence can block out the sun.
Maybe all you can do is give yourself permission to embrace the rest of your life. To play, to love, to risk. To take the beauty that someone brought into your life and share it.
