At one time in the world there were woods that no one owned
Interpretation
The quote reflects a time when nature was unowned and free, symbolizing a connection to untamed wilderness.
Cormac McCarthy's quote evokes imagery of a time when vast expanses of wilderness existed, untouched by human claim or ownership. It emphasizes the idea of natural freedom and the beauty of a world where nature is allowed to thrive without borders or ownership, suggesting a longing for a simpler, more connected existence with the earth.
In practice
During a nature retreat, this quote can inspire attendees to appreciate the beauty of unclaimed land.
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
On the day-long follows that I used to do with mothers and their offspring - these chimp families that I knew so well - there was hardly a day when I didn't learn something new about them.
For the sight of the angry weather saddens my soul and the sight of the town, sitting like a bereaved mother beneath layers of ice, oppresses my heart.
The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase these things with money.
Fireflies in the Garden By Robert Frost 1874β1963 Here come real stars to fill the upper skies, And here on earth come emulating flies, That though they never equal stars in size, (And they were never really stars at heart) Achieve at times a very star-like start. Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.
Sprigs of plum by the corner of the wall_x000D_ _x000D_ Are blooming alone in the cold;_x000D_ _x000D_ If not for the subtle fragrance drifting over_x000D_ _x000D_ Who could tell this from snow on the boughs.
Great oaks grow from little acorns. He has a green thumb. He has green fingers. He's sowing his wild oats. Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand, And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand.
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