Birds of America

‰ЫПStaring out through the window, off into the horizon, Abby began to think that all the beauty and ugliness and turbulence one found scattered through nature, one could also find in people themselves, all collected there, all together in a single place. No matter what terror or loveliness the earth could produce ‰ЫУ winds, seas ‰ЫУ a person could produce the same, lived with the same, lived with all that mixed-up nature swirling inside, every bit. There was nothing as complex in the world ‰ЫУ no flower or stone ‰ЫУ as a single hello from a human being.‰Ыќ (From ‰ЫПWhich Is More Than I Can Say About Some People‰Ыќ)

‰ЫПIt seemed to her that everything she had ever needed to know in her life she had known at one time or another, but she just hadn‰ЫЄt known all those things at once, at the same time, at a single moment. They were scattered through and she had had to leave and forget one in order to get to another. A shadow fell across her, inside her, and she could feel herself retreat to that place in her bones where death was and you greeted it like an acquaintance in a room; you said hello and were then ready for whatever was next ‰ЫУ which might be a guide, the guide that might be sent to you, the guide to lead you back out into your life again.‰Ыќ (From ‰ЫПTerrific Mother‰Ыќ)