Cormac McCarthy from The Road

Sense how
Even the smooth stones ache
With stories of their own
In the shuddering light of day.
― Scott Hastie

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. ― Rachel Carson

Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation. ― Raquel Cepeda from Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

I wanted to feel the blood running back into my veins, even at the cost of annihilation. I wanted to shake the stone and light out of my system … To be of night so frighteningly silent, so utterly incomprehensible and eloquent at the same time. Never more to speak or to listen or to think. ― Henry Miller from Tropic of Capricorn

All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. ― Cormac McCarthy from The Road

The sand doesn’t care if you’re made of flesh or stone. ― Joaquin Lowe from Bullet Catcher

These are burning times. And they call for Burning Women. Women embodied in their passion. Woman feeling in their bodies. Creative women. Courageous women. Women who have learned to run on a different power source to the world which is falling into flames around her. … she will not be dazed, confused and disorientated by the systemic changes happening around her. Centred within herself, receptive to the Earth beyond her, she knows how to cultivate from the ashes, she knows how to find the embers to fuel the new fire.

Burning Women arise.
Our time is now.
Our time has come.

― Lucy H. Pearce from Burning Woman

When surrounded by the ashes of all that I once cherished, despite my best efforts I can find no room to be thankful. But standing there amidst endless ash I must remember that although the ashes surround me, God surrounds the ashes. And once that realization settles upon me, I am what I thought I could never be … I am thankful for ashes. ― Craig Lounsbrough