Finished reading: Bluecrowne by Kate Milford 📚

Continuing to visit the Greenglass House universe with the kids.

nothing stays the same. Nothing can. Time works upon everything, and every morning we wake into a subtly different world than the one we fell asleep in the night before. Nothing stays the same. You have only to turn to the sea you love so much to know this is true.

Do I remain behind, hoping the things I love will stay unaltered although I know better, or do I become part of the change in the world and take the memory of what I love with me?

Those who are desperate to keep things from changing tend to do more damage than good.

A community has folks who are like pillars—they hold it together and shape its character. There’s almost always a smith, a keeper of lore, and a keeper of sanctuary, and then the others can vary.

Come, let us have a short cruise to shake the dust from my timbers. You have all the time in the world for prettying, but this day will only last until nightfall.

The tiller and the shabby sail translated those four marine dialects into a smooth-flowing poem of motion.

No one whose first response to an object is to remark upon how well it would tear out another’s throat is likely to seek a gentle-hearted collector for it.

Perfectly ordinary, I’m afraid, but ordinary has its uses as well.

Not all powers are magic.

I suspect as the daughter of a privateer, the girl herself would be the first to tell you that in a battle, tactics and strategy are as much of the fight as force. Watching for unexpected opportunities. Seeing that the ones firing the guns have what they need. And sometimes I imagine in the end the greatest victories come down to sheer, thickheaded courage.

But we ignore our instincts far too easily.

The saddest thing a mother or father must learn is that one cannot protect one’s children from hurt.

This is what a ship is for, she realized: first and foremost always, a thing for fighting with. No matter how much prettying was done to make it elegant. No matter how much it felt like home.