The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their soft arms from around you, the birds take back their language, the cliffs fissure and collapse, the air moves back from you like a wave and you can't breathe. No, they whisper. You own nothing. You were a visitor, time after time climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming. We never belonged to you. You never found us. It was always the other way round. Margaret Atwood
Sparrow on a Windowsill in Winter, 2015 by Artist Tamara Kortava. Close view of the back of a sparrow looking out over a winter landscape.
It may be alluring, but you own nothing. You can plant a flag and proclaim all you want.
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