Hold Fast Quotes

“The sun comes up after breakfast, but you wouldn't know it. Clouds hold the sun back in its scabbard, only the faintest murmur of light. Dad is full of bacon and big ideas. He looks like a grizzly bear and I wonder for a moment if I'll ever have to wrestle him.”
― Spencer K.M. Brown, Hold Fast

“The sun comes up after breakfast, but you wouldn't know it. Cloud hold the sun back in its scabbard, only the faintest murmur of light. Dad is full of bacon and big ideas. He looks like a grizzly bear and I wonder for a moment if I'll ever have to wrestle him.”
― Spencer K.M. Brown, Hold Fast

“We’re talking now of late August evenings in Minnesota. That world consists of the din of lawn mower blades turning in raucous slicing circles like buzzards over prey, the throb of a
racing boat’s outboard motor on the Lake.
Garden hoses run with cool water and wash over the last flowers of the year before the autumn turns all the green to brown. In the afternoons, children run through sprinklers on the lawn and men burn piles of last autumn’s leaves. Mothers prepare suppers and read novels under the shade of summer hats, carefully watching over their children from afar. All is safe and good in the summer. But Thom Algonquin can no longer hear the lawn mowers humming, boat motors churning, the hoses splashing or the children playing.
He doesn’t smell the leaves burning or help his mother prepare supper. Thom Algonquin is seven years old and he has walked too far into the woods near his home on Lake Superior. He hears nothing save the sound of sunlight and trees, birds, and his own feet pattering along atop the underbrush. He is not so sure he can hear these things exactly though. It has now become clear to him that he has gone too far, too deep into the old woods. He is accustomed to going a little farther than his mother allowed, but he has walked miles past that line now. Though his heart races he does not scream or run or cry. He looks around for home but each direction is identical to the others. He remembers his Cub Scout manual saying that moss grows on the northern side
of tree trunks because there is less sunlight. But the aspen trees have no moss on them at all, and the big white oaks have moss on every side of their trunks. He holds his breath and listens. He hears his heart beat, and somewhere behind that, he hears water, waves and lapping tides. The Lake. He can always find home from the Lake. His father told him to simply keep the water on his left hand and walk until he is home, should he ever get lost. Thom moves toward the sound of water. He walks quickly but doesn’t run, doesn’t panic. If he runs he will know that something is wrong and that he is scared. He does not want to know these things, does not want them to
become real, so he walks quickly but calmly.”
― Spencer K.M. Brown, Hold Fast

“We are all those beautiful things, too, he whispers. Not only broken, not only cursed, but stronger where we were broken, steadfast where we were once afraid. Yes, yes, beautiful. We are those things, too.”
― Spencer K.M. Brown, Hold Fast