First Fires
Jinat Rehana Begum
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Scar tissue — it’s a new layer of tender skin, lightly covering the wound. Still a vulnerable spot, the slightest little knock might tear the skin so it bleeds and the remembered ache from the old wound intensifies the pain from the latest blow.”
“Pride. The worst kind of fire. It starts somewhere below the gut, creeps through the liver, climbs quietly up the heart, and moves into the lungs. You never notice it until it’s too late. It’s uncontrollable by the time it gets to the head. There it rages, blowing hot air through the ears. It’s a spiteful hissing above the echoing vacuum between the ears. All thoughts get evicted or burnt. When the fire ceases, only black ashes remain. Imagine. Ashes in your head.”
“I struggle to discover what these silent sons of mine want, but words have always failed me. They are sullen even as they tell me they are okay. I know they are lying but there is nothing I can do.”
“Your mother wasn’t upset. “Scars stay with you so you don’t forget,” she said. She seemed almost satisfied.”
“They want me to contain the raging fires within me. They need me to appreciate glowing embers, to understand that even weak flames need to be managed with a lot of careful planning.”
“There is no denying it, our past stinks and seeps into our present. Occasionally I get such a potent whiff of history that my mind spins and my stomach lurches.”
“The first sound a child hears is very important. It determines character. A Muslim child always hears the Azan first. Words in praise of God. Words to live by.”
“Somewhere beneath the surface of this body, a fire, maybe even several fires, are burning. The flames within me are licking away the moisture, feeding on my blood so that my body resembles a land struck by drought. I no longer possess that fine solid sheet which used to conceal my veins and other inner parts as efficiently as anyone else’s skin.”
“Sometimes, when you are busy and children ask funny questions, you don’t think so much. You just answer quickly so they will leave you alone. If you don’t answer, they will just keep asking or they will go and do something very bad.”
“So I watch her work and put all her energy, all her force, all herself, all is inside her work. Does she think that this is what life means? She goes to work in the dark and comes home when it’s dark. Does she know what the world looks like when the sun is shining?”
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Book Keywords:
family, children, curiosity, past, vulnerability, difficulties, wound, energy, words-to-live-by, meaning-of-life, parenthood, pride, work, god, motherhood, emotions-and-control, consumed, humanity, sons, emotions, internal-conflict, burnout, growing-up, history, life, sun, mother, fire, present, healing, scars, family-relationships, child, challenges, culture, body, words, rituals, questions
