She has spent most of the day reading and is feeling rather out of touch with reality, as if her own life has become insubstantial in the face of the fiction she's been absorbed in.
Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote describes the anticipation and awareness of nature in response to impending change.
Maggie O'Farrell's quote highlights the interconnectedness of nature and the sense of awareness that living things possess. The trees, personified with emotions and restlessness, signify a feeling of change or transformation looming on the horizon, suggesting that all entities in nature are attuned to their environment and the changes that come with it. This representation reminds us that nature is not just a backdrop to our lives, but a dynamic participant that reacts to shifts in the world around us.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used at a nature conservation event to evoke a sense of awareness about environmental changes.
More from Maggie O'Farrell
All quotes →She liked the way his smile took a long time to arrive and just as long to leave.
Similar quotes
The summer breeze was blowing on your face_x000D_ _x000D_ Within your violet you treasure your summery words_x000D_ _x000D_ And as the shiver from my neck down to my spine_x000D_ _x000D_ Ignited me in daylight and nature in the garden
When we settled our country, the dark forest was considered in some ways evil and something that you needed to plow or, later, bulldoze. We now have a new understanding of the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the need for bird flyways and why all species matter.
Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.
A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage.
Complexity is one of the great problems in environmental design.
The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it.