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Trees have a rather complicated relationship with people, after all. One minute you’re hugging us. The next minute you’re turning us into tables and tongue depressors.
page 2
Hollows are proof that something bad can become something good with enough time and care and hope.
Samar has the look of someone who has seen too much. Someone who wants the world to quiet itself.
Samar, every spring night, reminded me there is beauty in stillness and grace in acceptance.
Only one percent of a fully grown tree is actually alive at any one time.
I wouldn’t trade a single rootlet for any of it. It is a great gift indeed to love who you are.
explaining doesn’t make things any funnier.”
Time heals all wounds.”
Different languages, different food, different customs. That’s our neighborhood: wild and tangled and colorful. Like the best kind of garden.
What was different this time? The headscarf Samar’s mother wore? Or was it something else?
As all this unfolded, busybody that I am, I kept tabs, eavesdropped, observed. I never interfered, though. Trees are impartial observers. We are the strong and silent type.
Besides, what could I possibly do? I had limbs, but they could merely sway. I had a trunk, but it was rooted to the earth. I had a voice, but it could not be used. My resources were li...
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People believe what they wanna believe.
I could write a book.” I paused. “In fact, I could be a book.” I paused again. “Because, you know … paper is made of trees.”
I wondered, too, if I’d done enough for the world I loved.
“We grow as we must grow, as our seeds decided long ago.”
“You’re a good friend, Bongo. But sometimes all you can do is stand tall and reach deep.”
friendship doesn’t have to be hard. That sometimes we let the world make it hard.
page 125
Just hopeful. And everyone needs to hope,
Because as each child, as each neighbor, as each stranger, placed a wish upon me, they looked at Samar and her parents and said the same thing: “STAY.”
you’re never too old to be surprised.
page 189
