The English, though themselves islanders at heart, have never quite known where to place our island inside their minds. One minute we seemed reassuringly familiar to their eyes, the next minute strangely exotic and oriental.

drifting back to the painful place they both shared but could only occupy separately.

She had neither family gatherings nor exotic destinations lined up.

recognizing him any more? Instead, she said a single word. ‘Plants.’

vainglory.

because that is what nature did to death, it transformed abrupt endings into a thousand new beginnings.

hackneyed

vulnerability and resilience.

The places where we were born are the shape of our lives, even when we are away from them. Especially then.