Jimmy Bluefeather Quotes

“Keb would never forget how Gracie turned to the wall and trembled, how he felt nailed to the chair, thinking: we build a perfect picture of what we want our children to be. And when that picture falls and shatters, what do we do? His sister Dot once told him: we get on our hands and knees and put the pieces back together, and call it parenting.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“You have to suffer and come out the other side, find compassion in the emptiness. Respond by not filling it up. It's no easy thing. It's not what we build, Uncle Austin used to say. It's what we leave alone that makes us who we are. Look around. We cannot improve this place. We can only honor it by receiving its bounty with wisdom and thanks.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“He'd visit his grandson and tell him Raven doesn't care about fame or fortune. Raven doesn't care about diplomas or degrees. Raven looks for scars, the signs of suffering that give a man his depth. Add this wound to the others no strangers see. Add it and move on because it's the only thing to do. There are two tragedies in life: Not getting what you want, and getting it. That's what he would tell his gifted, tormented grandson. After that, Old Keb Wisting would return to Alaska and walk into the woods and lie down and die.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Consumption,” Truman would say, his mouth full of popcorn. “People died of it long ago and still do today, only it’s different.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“He had a lean and hungry look,”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“There are two tragedies in life: Not getting what you want, and getting”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,” Milo told him. “We are spiritual beings on a human journey, born into our lives for one reason only:”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Maybe it’s not what we have that makes us who we are, it’s what we’re missing. A chromosome, a kidney, a sister, a feather, a bay.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“you have to meet the outer world with your inner world to keep your soul anchored. If not, existence will crush you.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Uncle Austin used to say that all of our joy and suffering comes from the same single sacred utterance; that we live by being wounded and healed and wounded again, and healed, one day at a time.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“He kept thinking about Uncle Austin, how he taught him to build a fire in the rain, to sharpen a knife, to regard ten cords of wood as money in the bank, to read the wind and tides with intention, to catch a fish, to build a snare, to live off the land and sea and not just survive, but thrive; to know a thousand things with animal senses—to be smart, strong, sensual, alive, more alive than you’ll ever be indoors.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“If words were water he could turn turbines.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“God must have had a sense of humor to create us.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Death is the general condition. Life is the exception: a beautiful, love-filled exception.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“We make our homes from parts of ourselves—the laughter of our kids, the friends who drop by. They become our finest decorations, our best memories, the things no fire can burn.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“The greatest gift we can leave this world is the forest and the sea the way we found it, separate and the same, the oldest home of all, older and more beautiful than all the things industrious people pride themselves in building.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“It takes a while to understand that there is something out there bigger than you, something greater than what you’ve designed for yourself.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Awhile back, Gramps had told James to start bathing in the ocean, to get ready, get tough. “To become a warrior?” James asked. “No, the world has too many warriors. You’ll be a peacekeeper, a healer.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“What would it have been like to live back then, when stories colored the world and even the sky listened?”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Pull yourself together and land on your feet because it’s better than landing on your head.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Before dragging it down through mosses, sedges, and small twin flowers—plants the deer had eaten all its life—he’d taken a sharp knife to the belly, opened it and found a fragrance, the moist smell of Earth, something Gramps had spoken of. He had said that when it happens, when the deer gives itself to you this way, it’s a gift the hunter must accept with gratitude.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“Uncle Austin used to say that when men set out to destroy each other, the first victim was always the same: truth.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“How is it that young people most need our love when they least deserve it?”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,” Milo told him. “We are spiritual beings on a human journey, born into our lives for one reason only: to seek the road that makes death a fulfillment.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“There are two tragedies in life: Not getting what you want, and getting it.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“You know what appeals to me about philosophy? Nobody wins.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather

“The more centered you are, the less you occupy the center. That’s when awareness begins.”
― Kim Heacox, Jimmy Bluefeather