31 Days: Sunday Quotes
Welcome to my {31 Days} series this year! We will soon be welcoming baby # 3 and I realized that there is a lot I need to do before that happens! You can find all the posts in this series here. Thank you for following along with me.
Babies are soft. Anyone looking at them can see the tender,
fragile skin and know it for the rose-leaf softness that invites a finger’s
touch. But when you live with them and love them, you feel the softness going
inward, the round-cheeked flesh wobbly as custard, the boneless splay of the
tiny hands. Their joints are melted rubber, and even when you kiss them hard,
in the passion of loving their existence, your lips sink down and seem never to
find bone. Holding them against you, they melt and mold, as though they might
at any moment flow back into your body.
fragile skin and know it for the rose-leaf softness that invites a finger’s
touch. But when you live with them and love them, you feel the softness going
inward, the round-cheeked flesh wobbly as custard, the boneless splay of the
tiny hands. Their joints are melted rubber, and even when you kiss them hard,
in the passion of loving their existence, your lips sink down and seem never to
find bone. Holding them against you, they melt and mold, as though they might
at any moment flow back into your body.
But from the very start, there is that small streak of steel
within each child. That thing that says “I am,” and forms the core of
personality.
within each child. That thing that says “I am,” and forms the core of
personality.
In the second year, the bone hardens and the child stands
upright, skull wide and solid, a helmet protecting the softness within. And
“I am” grows, too. Looking at them, you can almost see it, sturdy as
heartwood, glowing through the translucent flesh.
upright, skull wide and solid, a helmet protecting the softness within. And
“I am” grows, too. Looking at them, you can almost see it, sturdy as
heartwood, glowing through the translucent flesh.
The bones of the face emerge at six, and the soul within is
fixed at seven. The process of encapsulation goes on, to reach its peak in the
glossy shell of adolescence, when all softness then is hidden under the
nacreous layers of the multiple new personalities that teenagers try on to
guard themselves.
fixed at seven. The process of encapsulation goes on, to reach its peak in the
glossy shell of adolescence, when all softness then is hidden under the
nacreous layers of the multiple new personalities that teenagers try on to
guard themselves.
In the next years, the hardening spreads from the center, as
one finds and fixes the facets of the soul, until “I am” is set,
delicate and detailed as an insect in amber.
one finds and fixes the facets of the soul, until “I am” is set,
delicate and detailed as an insect in amber.
~Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber
