Is there a quote you highlighted in the narrative? What about it did you like?

Is there a quote you highlighted in the narrative? What about it did you like?

"If we lose our stories we lose ourselves." We can't forget where we came from nor the traditions we grew up with. They are what formed us and made us who we are.

“Hush now, sister. George Hawley’s destiny was written long before he met you.” This quote reassured me that divine could truly exist once in a while.

My book was dovetailed with pages to revisit.
"Maybe everyone was stuck in a role they never auditioned for." If we reflect on our lives and see where we are in time, is it where we imagined?

"Life was like a great painting; if you only focused on one part, you would miss the full picture." This reminded me of the children's book Seven Blind Mice by Young. Looking beyond the immediate to the whole, as Sarah did when she left New York for Ireland, and Anna did as she helped a stranger translate fairy stories.

"Our stories are in the land...it is written in those sacred places. My children will look after those places...that is the law."

The importance of sharing history orally and written, so they will continue through the generations. The stories must live forever.

"Harold was of the belief that The Good People were the departed souls of our deeply beloved, their voices reduced to a flutter on the breeze or the musical babbling of a brook. He wasn't just collecting fairy stories - he was keeping the memory of his ancestors alive."

The importance of legacy, love, and loss and keeping those gone with us in our hearts.

The importance of legacy, love and loss and keeping those gone with us in our hearts.

Grief is like a hard lump inside of you, it will stay there, hard like a rock, unless you begin working to soften it.

It will never go away completely, but instead of a hardness, it can become a tenderness. Your heart will make room for your memories and you won't be afraid of them any more.

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

But Anna has helped me to see that guilt is just a way of not allowing yourself to grieve. Because once you start to grieve, you really have to accept that they're gone.

If it seems like I'm focused on grief - it's because these passages really hit home to me. I feel like I haven't allowed myself to grieve over the fairly recent loss of two loved ones.

“Sure, I’m only a step behind you.” These were such comforting words in challenging times from Anna’s sister.
“Life was like a great painting; if you only focused on one part, you would miss the full picture.” We so often look at life from such a narrow perspective or point of view.

I highlighted an entire paragraph on page 84, Cathal O'Shaughnessy's response to Harold's question to him about what fairies look like. Here the the lilt of the language and sense of knowledge based on fond memories and experience really comes through.

"Oh sure, can't they take any shape they like, the little fecKers? . . . Don't go messing with them fairy folk, tell hem that now, Annie!"

All the ones listed above.

The quotes involving the retention of history and places of historic and cultural importance, the passing down of stories and history and traditions all struck me, because I feel that one of the problems in the US today is a lack of pride and interest and love of the history and traditions of this Country. US History --American History --Geography --very little of it is taught these days. The anthem, a fairly new song, I grant you is supplanted by America the Beautiful or sung like a rock song. The Pledge to the Flag has been so eradicated that most young children don't even know the words. When was the last time a child learned the Gettysburg Address or the Preamble to the Constitution. How many know the names of people like Nathan Hale, Benedict Arnold, Jefferson, Franklin etc. Thank goodness for the Broadway musical, Hamilton--at least Burr and Hamilton may be known to some. How about George Patton, Eisenhower, etc Yes, when you lose your stories, you lose yourselves.

Even a broken heart still feels ....
that one hit home for me

When Sarah finishes unburdening herself, she asks Fee "How did you get to to know so much? Fee answers, "Ha! It's life, my dear. We all get schooled in the end." I believe this is true. No matter how rosie the other guy's life seems, we all have our crosses to bear.

All the above mentioned ones! And there is another one I will have to look for and will add to this response - I did not highlight it but thought I SHOULD - now I cannot find it - close to the end of the story...

"Grief is like a hard lump inside of you, it will stay there, hard like a rock, unless you begin working to soften it."

Everyone has to deal with grief. You need to work thru the sadness to remember and enjoy the goodness.

"Was he trying to keep the painful memories in or keep happiness out?"