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Whenever I find myself singing in public, I know I am in trouble.

Polly Horvath. When the Circus Came to Town

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It is very odd to find yourself in the position of trying to help someone who has other plans.

Polly Horvath. One Year in Coal Harbor 

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Is this what it is to get older, to have adventures you can no longer tell your family because you are moving apart from them? Is this why my mother likes to have Ned around, so that she has someone to whom she can always tell her adventures? Or do you grow up and have adventures you tell no one? Are some adventures only yours alone? Will my mother have adventures she won't even tell Ned?

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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Yesterday I was so full of hope. My life seemed blessed, full of adventures and answered prayers, and now something very, very bad had happened and it will never be the same again. And it all happened because I was greedy. Because i couldn't have an ordinary life. Because I was so taken with the wonders of the world that I could not be content with anything less than the constant awareness of its miracles. And you cannot have that in your basic nine-to-three scholtime routine, even with the best of teachers. Even with books to read. Even with the sound of the ocean every night. You need more.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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My mother makes toast that she and I eat, sitting at the kitchen table, staring in the direction of the rushing sound of the invisible sea, which keeps us company always here so that none of us is ever really alone.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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There is something about happy expansive people that makes them want to see how much it takes to explode your stomach.

Polly Horvath. When the Circus Came to Town

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At the beach we settle into sandy boredom. It is going to be a long day.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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More often than not, when my mother sits on the porch steps now, we are totally silent. I think we are memorizing the sound of the waves.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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It is as if I am missing summer. It is as if I am missing my life. It is happening here without me.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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Maybe we will be blown apart to the many corners of the earth, and I am filled with sadness to lose the other four, but then a sharp stab of something, excitement maybe. It is the prospect of adventures to be had.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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For five days nothing happens except summer.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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I think we have all kinds of different parts of ourselves stored away and waiting and sometimes some of them get unleashed on us without us even knowing.

Polly Horvath. One Year in Coal Harbor

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Mrs. Halibut left to get my drink, and the snake lady, Alfred, and I sat smiling at each other, each of our brains, I'm sure, scrambling like rats in mazes looking for some topic of conversation to fill the silence.

Polly Horvath. When the Circus Came to Town

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They stood staring at one another with a pile of unanswered questions between them.

Polly Horvath. The Trolls

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Being a book character isn't the end of the world. Some of my favorite people are book characters.

Polly Horvath. When the Circus Came to Town

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I run out and the dark green screen door bangs behind me. It makes a whomping sound. It is one of my favorite sounds in the world. It is the sound of the house breathing. The screen door is its lungs. We keep the house breathing through our movement. What keeps us breathing through its movement? The house is the sixth member of the family. The one that is always watching. Under its roof, we are one.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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You know what Sunday is, it's a day with a lot of potential for naps.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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Pero sí tenía su cierto encanto agrestre de matorral, una belleza discreta si se quiere, de la que siempre he sido partidario. No me gustan las cosas que vociferan con alharaca su belleza. Me gusta descubrirla por mí mismo y así siento que hago parte de ella.

Polly Horvath. Las vacaciones

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I am endlessly pointing out birds to Ginny, who accuses me of being a birder, but it still gives me a small gasp of pleasure to see one unexpectedly appear. As if all the movement in the universe is visible to us suddenly in the fields of the air.

Polly Horvath. My One Hundred Adventures

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It was very theatrical of him and made him look pretty foolish, but I guess his heart was in the right place.

Polly Horvath. When the Circus Came to Town