When the Wildflowers Bloom Again Quotes

“Sometimes we make good choices. Sometimes we make bad ones, but we are not defined by our mistakes.” Her steady gaze, so much like Daddy’s, never left mine. “When I look at you I see so much more.”
Something shifted deep inside me and a pang shot through my stomach.
“But you don’t know,” I choked out.
Aunt Sister squeezed my arm. “I know you, Mary.”
I expected her to repeat the phrases I’d so often heard about how God knows everything and loves you anyway. But she didn’t. I guess she figured I already knew.
I did.
Sister reminded me without saying a word. I just wasn’t sure I completely believed it anymore.”
― Donna Jo Stone, When the Wildflowers Bloom Again

“The work was mind numbing yet somehow important. I was a tiny contributor to a large thing, bringing my offering under the watchful gaze of Almighty God.
Chasing dust motes wasn’t as poetic as the gift of the little drummer boy, but it was the gift I had at the moment. I’m not sure what the elders would think of my musings.
Daddy had always said the people were the church, but with it all empty and lemon-fresh scented, it felt more holy than it did on the usual Sunday, when it was full of powdery-cheeked ladies and men wearing suits. The quietness soothed me more than any choir. The stillness let me focus and actually see the play of light on stained glass windows.
Without light, the windows would be as blank and lifeless as plain old regular, unsanctified panes.”
― Donna Jo Stone, When the Wildflowers Bloom Again

“Stenciled on the wall were yellow and white daisies and the words: God Keeps His Promises.
I closed my eyes, and tried to let those words seep into my soul.
Do you? Do you keep them all?
Daddy would say yes, God keeps them all, every single one. The ones He actually made and not the genie-in-a-bottle lies we wished were true.”
― Donna Jo Stone, When the Wildflowers Bloom Again