The Girl in the Tree

by Şebnem İşigüzel

People are nothing more than the accumulated stories of others. In particular, the stories of their mothers and fathers.

I’m not talking about genetics—this is purely a matter of the spirit. Try with all your might to resist, but in the end, you turn out to be no different from them, in your very essence and being.

Laughter is the wind of the mind and soul—it picks you up and whisks you far away.

Why are people born into the world? That’s easy. So they’ll have a story to tell. Some of us die before the story ends, some of us die long after the story has ended, and some of us die right at the very start.

Unease, depression, melancholy, sorrow, anxiety, unhappiness, and fear are far more harmful than drugs.

Time is a key, not a remedy. With it, you can delve into the past and unlock doors that open onto rooms filled with things you couldn’t otherwise remember.

Forgetting doesn’t alleviate the pain we feel—remembering does.

“Fears exist so we can overcome them.”

“If your heart is beating in your chest, you have a story. Everything you feel, your life, hopes, dreams, and moments of darkness are all your stories.”

“Some things settle into our thoughts and feelings because that is the very place they need to be. That’s why you can’t get rid of them. They exist to be remembered, as they are the bedrock of our stories and that which we call life.”