“
In the land of the ostriches, the blind are king. When politicians bury their head in the sand, ignorance rules the country. ( "High noon." )
”
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Erik Pevernagie
“
Burying your head in the sand does not make you invisible it only leads to suffocation.
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Wayne Gerard Trotman (Veterans of the Psychic Wars)
“
We cannot play ostrich. Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.
”
”
Thurgood Marshall
“
I don’t want to rule the world, I don’t want to control it, I don’t even want to influence it. I want to sit beside you in a little garden, I want to put your needs before mine, I want to fetch you a glass of water when you’re thirsty. I want to laugh at your jokes, even the bad ones, and bury my head in proverbial sand.
”
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Olivie Blake (The Atlas Complex (The Atlas, #3))
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Some people simply bury their heads in the sand and refuse to think about the sorrow of the world, but this is an unwise course, because, if we are entirely unprepared, the tragedy of life can be devastating.
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Karen Armstrong (Buddha)
“
don’t accept what absolutely won’t work for you, but be ready to accept the consequences if you insist on burying your head in the sand.
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Nicole Sodoma (Please Don't Say You're Sorry: An Empowering Perspective on Marriage, Separation, and Divorce from a Marriage-Loving Divorce Attorney)
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... the more complex they made their world, the less capable they were of dealing with it. They had no means of consensus. They learnt to co-operate constructively in small units; but only destructively in large units. They aspired greedily, and then refused to face the responsibilities they had created. They created vast problems, and then buried their heads in the sands of idle faith.
”
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John Wyndham (The Chrysalids)
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The ostrich burying its head in the sand does at any rate wish to convey the impression that its head is the most important part of it.
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Katherine Mansfield (Journal of Katherine Mansfield)
“
Life is about taking risks, not about burying your head in the sand
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Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other)
“
I've always been a bit like an ostrich, willing to bury my head in the sand to avoid what I don't want to face
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Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
“
There is a whirlwind in southern Morocco, the aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. There is the africo, which has at times reached into the city of Rome. The alm, a fall wind out of Yugoslavia. The arifi, also christened aref or rifi, which scorches with numerous tongues. These are permanent winds that live in the present tense.
There are other, less constant winds that change direction, that can knock down horse and rider and realign themselves anticlockwise. The bist roz leaps into Afghanistan for 170 days--burying villages. There is the hot, dry ghibli from Tunis, which rolls and rolls and produces a nervous condition. The haboob--a Sudan dust storm that dresses in bright yellow walls a thousand metres high and is followed by rain. The harmattan, which blows and eventually drowns itself into the Atlantic. Imbat, a sea breeze in North Africa. Some winds that just sigh towards the sky. Night dust storms that come with the cold. The khamsin, a dust in Egypt from March to May, named after the Arabic word for 'fifty,' blooming for fifty days--the ninth plague of Egypt. The datoo out of Gibraltar, which carries fragrance.
There is also the ------, the secret wind of the desert, whose name was erased by a king after his son died within it. And the nafhat--a blast out of Arabia. The mezzar-ifoullousen--a violent and cold southwesterly known to Berbers as 'that which plucks the fowls.' The beshabar, a black and dry northeasterly out of the Caucasus, 'black wind.' The Samiel from Turkey, 'poison and wind,' used often in battle. As well as the other 'poison winds,' the simoom, of North Africa, and the solano, whose dust plucks off rare petals, causing giddiness.
Other, private winds.
Travelling along the ground like a flood. Blasting off paint, throwing down telephone poles, transporting stones and statue heads. The harmattan blows across the Sahara filled with red dust, dust as fire, as flour, entering and coagulating in the locks of rifles. Mariners called this red wind the 'sea of darkness.' Red sand fogs out of the Sahara were deposited as far north as Cornwall and Devon, producing showers of mud so great this was also mistaken for blood. 'Blood rains were widely reported in Portugal and Spain in 1901.'
There are always millions of tons of dust in the air, just as there are millions of cubes of air in the earth and more living flesh in the soil (worms, beetles, underground creatures) than there is grazing and existing on it. Herodotus records the death of various armies engulfed in the simoom who were never seen again. One nation was 'so enraged by this evil wind that they declared war on it and marched out in full battle array, only to be rapidly and completely interred.
”
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Michael Ondaatje
“
Perhaps I shouldn't call it shit. That's a bit crude. I don't really despise Christianity or even the Roman Church, and certainly not the incontrovertible glory of the Middle Ages. What I do despise is the contemporary inclination to flop to the knees and crawl back into the past, to shy from what seem like impossible problems in order to bury the head, asshole aloft and twitching, in the Sands of Time. Cowardice, I calls it. Illusion-seeking. Womb-crawling. And treason. Desertion in the face of the enemy.
Strong words indeed. But I've always been rather a blunt, tough, plain-spoken type . . .
”
”
Edward Abbey (Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast)
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Bury my head in the sand and go with the status quo or find myself in the rubble and move on. I’d chosen the latter and that had led me here to him. Heaven help me.
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Jordan Silver (Talon's Heart)
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A friend who is a high-level executive, intimidating to many, recently promoted a courageous employee who walked into his office with a large bucket of sand and poured it on the rug. “What the hell are you doing?” demanded my friend. The employee replied, “I just figured I’d make it easier for you to bury your head in the sand on the topic I keep bringing up and you keep avoiding.” You
”
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Susan Scott (Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time)
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I could either bury my head in the sand, ignoring the feelings of guilt and discomfort that causing suffering to an animal created within me, or live by the new principles that I was beginning to form and change my lifestyle. I opted for the latter.
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Ed Winters (This Is Vegan Propaganda (& Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You))
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That week we tried everything to bury our heads in the sand. But the problem remains the same world over; the sand is never quite deep enough.
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Bill Carter (Fools Rush In: A True Story of War and Redemption)
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When you bury your head in the sand you leave your backside exposed to those who seek to take advantage.
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Gary Hopkins
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NATO bombing of Serbia was undertaken by the ‘international community,’ according to consistent Western rhetoric—although those who did not have their heads buried in the sand knew that it was opposed by most of the world, often quite vocally. Those who do not support the actions of wealth and power are not part of ‘the global community.
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Noam Chomsky (9-11)
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And I know that your broken parts fit mine, which is so fucking rare. Most people go their entire lives without finding it. So ignore it all you want. Bury your head in the sand for however long you need to be okay with it. But you don’t get to run. I won’t let you.” He brings his lips right up to mine, kissing me softly. “I fucking love you and I don’t give a shit what your rules say about that.
”
”
R. Phillips (Entangled (A Twisted Tale #1))
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We’ve been lucky. The autumn happened to be dry and warm. We managed to dig the potatoes before the rain and cold set in. Minus what we owed and returned to the Mikulitsyns, we have up to twenty sacks, and it is all in the main bin of the cellar, covered above, over the floor, with straw and old, torn blankets. Down there, under the floor, we also put two barrels of Tonya’s salted cucumbers and another two of cabbage she has pickled. The fresh cabbage is hung from the crossbeams, head to head, tied in pairs. The supply of carrots is buried in dry sand. As is a sufficient amount of harvested black radishes, beets, and turnips, and upstairs in the house there is a quantity of peas and beans. The firewood stored up in the shed will last till spring.
”
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Boris Pasternak (Doctor Zhivago (Vintage International))
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When you bury your head in the sand, at least you don't get slapped in the face.
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Kim Askew (Exposure (Twisted Lit #2))
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I’m often inclined to overprepare. But more to the point, I’ve always been a bit like an ostrich, willing to bury my head in the sand to avoid what I don’t want to face.
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Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
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Some people’s desire to bury their heads in the sand could never be underestimated.
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Ken Lozito (Infinity's Edge (Ascension, #4))
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Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I chose to never meet my brother. If I chose to keep my head buried in the sand.
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Krista Ritchie (Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters #2))
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My Ego taught me a new pride, I teach it to men: No longer to bury the head in the sand of heavenly things, but to carry it freely, an earthly head which creates meaning for the earth!
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Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
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As it turned out, warning Christians that burying their heads in the sand would only marginalize them further was completely intolerable to those Christians with their heads buried the deepest.
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David Fitzgerald (Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I (The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion, #2))
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The first discovery of Dostoievsky is, for a spiritual adventurer, such a shock as is not likely to occur again. One is staggered, bewildered, insulted. It is like a hit in the face, at the end of a dark passage; a hit in the face, followed by the fumbling of strange hands at one's throat. Everything that has been forbidden, by discretion, by caution, by self-respect, by atavistic inhibition, seems suddenly to leap up out of the darkness and seize upon one with fierce, indescribable caresses.
All that one has felt, but has not dared to think; all that one has thought, but has not dared to say; all the terrible whispers from the unspeakable margins; all the horrible wreckage and silt from the unsounded depths, float in upon us and overpower us.
There is so much that the other writers, even the realists among them, cannot, will not, say. There is so much that the normal self-preservative instincts in ourselves do not want said. But this Russian has no mercy. Such exposures humiliate and disgrace? What matter? It is well that we should be so laid bare. Such revelations provoke and embarrass? What matter? We require embarrassment. The quicksilver of human consciousness must have no closed chinks, no blind alleys. It must be compelled to reform its microcosmic reflections, even down there, where it has to be driven by force. It is extraordinary how superficial even the great writers are; how lacking in the Mole's claws, in the Woodpecker's beak! They seem labouring beneath some pathetic vow, exacted by the Demons of our Fate, under terrible threats, only to reveal what will serve their purpose! This applies as much to the Realists, with their traditional animal chemistry, as to the Idealists, with their traditional ethical dynamics. It applies, above all, to the interpreters of Sex, who, in their conventional grossness, as well as in their conventional discretion, bury such Ostrich heads in the sand!
”
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John Cowper Powys (Visions and Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions)
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Fine, lad, I’ll help you,” Gibsie replied with a sigh. “Even though it’ll never work, you’re doomed to fail, and I’ll more than likely end up giving the best man speech at your wedding at some ridiculously young age because you’ll have bulldozed the shit out of things, for now, I will absolutely help you bury your head in the sand.” “That’s not funny, Gibs,” I snapped, bristling. “I know,” he replied—while he laughed his arse off. “It’s hilarious.
”
”
Chloe Walsh (Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1))
“
A few years ago, Ed and I were exploring the dunes on Cumberland Island, one of the barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the mainland of south Georgia. He was looking for the fossilized teeth of long-dead sharks. I was looking for sand spurs so that I did not step on one. This meant that neither of us was looking very far past our own feet, so the huge loggerhead turtle took us both by surprise. She was still alive but just barely, her shell hot to the touch from the noonday sun. We both knew what had happened. She had come ashore during the night to lay her eggs, and when she had finished, she had looked around for the brightest horizon to lead her back to the sea. Mistaking the distant lights on the mainland for the sky reflected on the ocean, she went the wrong way. Judging by her tracks, she had dragged herself through the sand until her flippers were buried and she could go no farther. We found her where she had given up, half cooked by the sun but still able to turn one eye up to look at us when we bent over her. I buried her in cool sand while Ed ran to the ranger station. An hour later she was on her back with tire chains around her front legs, being dragged behind a park service Jeep back toward the ocean. The dunes were so deep that her mouth filled with sand as she went. Her head bent so far underneath her that I feared her neck would break. Finally the Jeep stopped at the edge of the water. Ed and I helped the ranger unchain her and flip her back over. Then all three of us watched as she lay motionless in the surf. Every wave brought her life back to her, washing the sand from her eyes and making her shell shine again. When a particularly large one broke over her, she lifted her head and tried her back legs. The next wave made her light enough to find a foothold, and she pushed off, back into the water that was her home. Watching her swim slowly away after her nightmare ride through the dunes, I noted that it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are being killed or saved by the hands that turn your life upside down.
”
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Barbara Brown Taylor (Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night)
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Being compassionate is actually very brave because it involves taking an honest look at your own self. In order to feel compassion towards yourself, you must be willing to face your pain instead of burying your head in the sand. That’s the essence of bravery.
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Richard Kerr (Fu*k Fear: A Raw, Honest Guide About Showing Anxiety Who’s Boss!)
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At the end of the world there lies a mountain so high it makes you dizzy even to think about it. It is as black as soot, as smooth as silk, terribly steep, and where there should be a bottom, there are only clouds. But high up on the peak stands the Hobgoblin's House, and it looks like this." And Snufkin drew a house in the sand.
"Hasn't it got any windows?" asked Sniff.
"No," said Snufkin, "and it hasn't got a door either, because the Hobgoblin always goes home by air riding on a black panther. He goes out every night and collects rubies in his hat."
"What did you say?" asked Sniff, with his eyes popping out of his head. "Rubies! Where does he get them from?"
"The Hobgoblin can change himself into anything he likes," Snufkin answered, "and then he can crawl under the ground and even down onto the sea bed where buried treasure lies.
”
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Tove Jansson (Finn Family Moomintroll (The Moomins, #3))
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California during the 1940s had Hollywood and the bright lights of Los Angeles, but on the other coast was Florida, land of sunshine and glamour, Miami and Miami Beach. If you weren't already near California's Pacific Coast you headed for Florida during the winter. One of the things which made Miami such a mix of glitter and sunshine was the plethora of movie stars who flocked there to play, rubbing shoulders with tycoons and gangsters. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between the latter two.
Miami and everything that surrounded it hadn't happened by accident. Carl Fisher had set out to make Miami Beach a playground destination during the 1930s and had succeeded far beyond his dreams. The promenade behind the Roney Plaza Hotel was a block-long lovers' lane of palm trees and promise that began rather than ended in the blue waters of the Atlantic.
Florida was more than simply Miami and Miami Beach, however. When George Merrick opened the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables papers across the country couldn't wait to gush about the growing aura of Florida. They tore down Collins Bridge in the Gables and replaced it with the beautiful Venetian Causeway. You could plop down a fiver if you had one and take your best girl — or the girl you wanted to score with — for a gondola ride there before the depression, or so I'd been told.
You see, I'd never actually been to Florida before the war, much less Miami. I was a newspaper reporter from Chicago before the war and had never even seen the ocean until I was flying over the Pacific for the Air Corp. There wasn't much time for admiring the waves when Japanese Zeroes were trying to shoot you out of the sky and bury you at the bottom of that deep blue sea.
It was because of my friend Pete that I knew so much about Miami. Florida was his home, so when we both got leave in '42 I followed him to the warm waters of Miami to see what all the fuss was about. It would be easy to say that I skipped Chicago for Miami after the war ended because Pete and I were such good pals and I'd had such a great time there on leave. But in truth I decided to stay on in Miami because of Veronica Lake.
I'd better explain that. Veronica Lake never knew she was the reason I came back with Pete to Miami after the war. But she had been there in '42 while Pete and I were enjoying the sand, sun, and the sweet kisses of more than a few love-starved girls desperate to remember what it felt like to have a man's arm around them — not to mention a few other sensations. Lake had been there promoting war bonds on Florida's first radio station, WQAM. It was a big outdoor event and Pete and I were among those listening with relish to Lake's sultry voice as she urged everyone to pitch-in for our boys overseas.
We were in those dark early days of the war at the time, and the outcome was very much in question. Lake's appearance at the event was a morale booster for civilians and servicemen alike. She was standing behind a microphone that sat on a table draped in the American flag. I'd never seen a Hollywood star up-close and though I liked the movies as much as any other guy, I had always attributed most of what I saw on-screen to smoke and mirrors. I doubted I'd be impressed seeing a star off-screen. A girl was a girl, after all, and there were loads of real dolls in Miami, as I'd already discovered. Boy, was I wrong." - Where Flamingos Fly
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Bobby Underwood (Where Flamingos Fly (Nostalgic Crime #2))
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The people who will best survive the present age are the ones Kipling described as "those who can keep their heads while all about are losing theirs." Inner stability is achieved not by burying one's head in the sand at the sight of danger, but by acquiring the ability to see the true nature of what is happening and to respond appropriately.
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W. Timothy Gallwey (The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance (Chinese Edition))
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Sometimes she thought of David as an ostrich, burying his head in the sand and forcing himself to believe that all would be well. It was one of the few things about him that she found frustrating. It wasn't so much optimism as an inability to face reality and a tendency to look for the easy way out. It wasn't going to work this time. There was no easy way out.
”
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Rachel Abbott (Stranger Child (DCI Tom Douglas #4))
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Their successful husbands had learned that earning money led to love. Because it did. However, earning money didn't sustain love. As women were becoming more in touch with and sharing what was bothering them, their husbands were often burying their heads in the sand, hoping the bullets would miss. The more successful they were, the more they learned to repress their feelings, not express their feelings.
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Warren Farrell (The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It)
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Todd wrapped his arm around her. They stood together in silent awe, watching the sunset. All Christy could think of was how this was what she had always wanted, to be held in Todd's arms as well as in his heart.
Just as the last golden drop of sun melted into the ocean, Christy closed her eyes and drew in a deep draught of the sea air.
"Did you know," Todd said softly, "that the setting sun looks so huge from the island of Papua New Guinea that it almost looks like you're on another planet? I've seen pictures."
Then, as had happened with her reflection in her cup of tea and in her disturbing dream, Christy heard those two piercing words, "Let go."
She knew what she had to do. Turning to face Todd, she said, "Pictures aren't enough for you, Todd. You have to go."
"I will. Someday. Lord willing," he said casually.
"Don't you see, Todd? The Lord is willing. This is your 'someday.' Your opportunity to go on the mission field is now. You have to go."
Their eyes locked in silent communion.
"God has been telling me something, Todd. He's been telling me to let you go. I don't want to, but I need to obey Him."
Todd paused. "Maybe I should tell them I can only go for the summer. That way I'll only be gone a few months. A few weeks, really. We'll be back together in the fall."
Christy shook her head. "It can't be like that, Todd. You have to go for as long as God tells you to go. And as long as I've known you, God has been telling you to go. His mark is on your life, Todd. It's obvious. You need to obey Him."
"Kilikina," Todd said, grasping Christy by the shoulders, "do you realize what you're saying? If I go, I may never come back."
"I know." Christy's reply was barely a whisper. She reached for the bracelet on her right wrist and released the lock. Then taking Todd's hand, she placed the "Forever" bracelet in his palm and closed his fingers around it.
"Todd," she whispered, forcing the words out, "the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace. And may you always love Jesus more than anything else. Even more than me."
Todd crumbled to the sand like a man who had been run through with a sword. Burying his face in his hands, he wept.
Christy stood on wobbly legs. What have I done? Oh, Father God, why do I have to let him go?
Slowly lowering her quivering body to the sand beside Todd, Christy cried until all she could taste was the salty tears on her lips.
They drove the rest of the way home in silence. A thick mantle hung over them, entwining them even in their separation. To Christy it seemed like a bad dream. Someone else had let go of Todd. Not her! He wasn't really going to go.
They pulled into Christy's driveway, and Todd turned off the motor. Without saying anything, he got out of Gus and came around to Christy's side to open the door for her. She stepped down and waited while he grabbed her luggage from the backseat. They walked to the front door.
Todd stopped her under the trellis of wildly fragrant white jasmine. With tears in his eyes, he said in a hoarse voice, "I'm keeping this." He lifted his hand to reveal the "Forever" bracelet looped between his fingers. "If God ever brings us together again in this world, I'm putting this back on your wrist, and that time, my Kilikina, it will stay on forever."
He stared at her through blurry eyes for a long minute, and then without a hug, a kiss, or even a good-bye, Todd turned to go. He walked away and never looked back.
”
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Robin Jones Gunn (Sweet Dreams (Christy Miller, #11))
“
Lord let me suffer much and then die Let me walk through silence and leave nothing behind not even fear Make the world continue let the ocean kiss the sand just as before Let the grass stay green so that the frogs can hide in it so that someone can bury his face in it and sob out his love Make the day rise brightly as if there were no more pain And let my poem stand clear as a windowpane bumped by a bumblebee’s head tr. by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak
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Christian Wiman (Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair)
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This time he was underwater, running, feet sinking deeper and deeper into the seabed. The surface was within reach if he raised his arms, but he couldn’t get his head out of the water. He had to breathe. The compulsion to inhale was huge. But he couldn’t, musn’t. Still he ran, getting nowhere, each frantic step burying his feet in the wet sand until he was no longer able to lift them. Finally, with one great gulp, he opened his mouth, his lungs to the flood of seawater.
”
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Martyn Bedford
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Without ever saying so, many intelligent people think, “Who am I to challenge authority and question whether our social leaders know what they are doing, where they are going, and how to get there?” Thus, a vital message must be dramatized to gain the attention of decent people. To follow the leader by default without verifying the equity, utility, and morality of the leadership through observational analysis is to bury our heads in the sand and to risk human extinction.
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Jay Snelson (Taming the Violence of Faith: Win-Win Solutions for Our World in Crisis)
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Each breaker, she supposed, was as unique as a human soul. Each made its own run up onto the shore, being the very embodiment of vigor and power at the start. But each slowed, spread thin, faltered, dissolved into a hissing ribbon of gray foam, and got buried under the next. The end result of all their noisy, pounding, repetitious efforts was the beach. Seen through a lens, the particular arrangement of sand-grains that made up the beach presumably was complicated, and reflected the individual contributions of every single wave that had ended its life here; but seen from the level of Eliza’s head it was unspeakably flat,
”
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Neal Stephenson (Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle #1))
“
Fireheart sprang forward and burst through the curtain of lichen. Tigerclaw and Bluestar were writhing on the floor of the den. Bluestar’s claws scored again and again across Tigerclaw’s shoulder, but the deputy’s greater weight kept her pinned down in the soft sand. Tigerclaw’s fangs were buried in her throat, and his powerful claws raked her back. “Traitor!” Fireheart yowled. He flung himself at Tigerclaw, slashing at his eyes. The deputy reared back, forced to release his grip on Bluestar’s throat. Fireheart felt his claws rip through the deputy’s ear, spraying blood into the air. Bluestar scrambled to the side of the den, looking half stunned. Fireheart could not tell how badly hurt she was. Pain lanced through him as Tigerclaw gashed his side with a blow from his powerful hindpaws. Fireheart’s paws skidded in the sand and he lost his balance, hitting the ground with Tigerclaw on top of him. The deputy’s amber eyes blazed into his. “Mousedung!” he hissed. “I’ll flay you, Fireheart. I’ve waited a long time for this.” Fireheart summoned every scrap of skill and strength he possessed. He knew Tigerclaw could kill him, but in spite of that he felt strangely free. The lies and the need for deceit were over. The secrets—Bluestar’s and Tigerclaw’s—were all out in the open. There was only the clean danger of battle. He aimed a blow at Tigerclaw’s throat, but the deputy swung his head to one side and Fireheart’s claws scraped harmlessly through thick tabby fur. But the blow had loosened Tigerclaw’s grip on him. Fireheart rolled away, narrowly avoiding a killing bite to his neck. “Kittypet!” Tigerclaw taunted, flexing his haunches to pounce again. “Come and find out how a real warrior fights.” He threw himself at Fireheart, but at the last moment Fireheart darted aside. As Tigerclaw tried to turn in the narrow den, his paws slipped on a splash of blood and he crashed awkwardly onto one side. At once Fireheart saw his chance. His claws sliced down to open a gash in Tigerclaw’s belly. Blood welled up, soaking into the deputy’s fur. He let out a high-pitched caterwaul. Fireheart pounced on him, raking claws across his belly again, and fastening his teeth into Tigerclaw’s neck. The deputy struggled vainly to free himself, his thrashing growing weaker as the blood flowed. Fireheart let go of his neck, planting one paw on Tigerclaw’s outstretched foreleg, and the other on his chest. “Bluestar!” he called. “Help me hold him down!” Bluestar was crouching behind him in her moss-lined nest. Blood trickled down her forehead, but that did not alarm Fireheart as much as the look in her eyes. They were a vague, cloudy blue, and she stared horror-struck in front of her as if she was witnessing the destruction
”
”
Erin Hunter (Warriors Boxed Set (Books 1-3))
“
I was afraid of anyone in a costume. A trip to see Santa might as well have been a trip to sit on Hitler's lap for all the trauma it would cause me. Once, when I was four, my mother and I were in a Sears and someone wearing an enormous Easter Bunny costume headed my way to present me with a chocolate Easter egg. I was petrified by this nightmarish six-foot-tall bipedal pink fake-fur monster with human-sized arms and legs and a soulless, impassive face heading toward me. It waved halfheartedly as it held a piece of candy out in an evil attempt to lure me into its clutches. Fearing for my life, I pulled open the bottom drawer of a display case and stuck my head inside, the same way an ostrich buries its head in the sand. This caused much hilarity among the surrounding adults, and the chorus of grown-up laughter I heard echoing from within that drawer only added to the horror of the moment. Over the next several years, I would run away in terror from a guy in a gorilla suit whose job it was to wave customers into a car wash, a giant Uncle Sam on stilts, a midget dressed like a leprechaun, an astronaut, the Detroit Tigers mascot, Ronald McDonald, Big Bird, Bozo the Clown, and every Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Uncle Scrooge, and Goofy who walked the streets at Disneyland. Add to this an irrational fear of small dogs that saw me on more than one occasion fleeing in terror from our neighbor's four-inch-high miniature dachschund as if I were being chased by the Hound of the Baskervilles and a chronic case of germ phobia, and it's pretty apparent that I was--what some of the less politically correct among us might call--a first-class pussy.
”
”
Paul Feig (Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence)
“
[The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for Adepts, the Princes of Masonry. The whole body of the Royal and Sacerdotal Art was hidden so carefully, centuries since, in the High Degrees, as that it is even yet impossible to solve many of the enigmas they contain. It is well enough for the mass of those called Masons, to imagine that all is contained in the Blue Degrees; and whose attempts to undeceive them will labor in vain, and without any true reward violate his obligations as an Adept. Masonry is the veritable Sphinx, buried to the head in the sands heaped round it by ages.]
”
”
Albert Pike
“
10 August, 1939
Confession: I am nineteen years old, and I’ve been kissed many times. But I’ve never been kissed like that.
It felt like drowning but not needing to breathe. Like falling but never hitting the ground. Even now, my hands are shaking, and my heart is so swollen and fat it feels like it’s going to burst, or I’m going to burst. I want to cry. I want to laugh. I want to bury my head in my pillow and scream until I fall asleep, because maybe when I go to sleep I can relive it.
I can’t believe it happened, yet I think I’ve been waiting for it to happen for the last seven years, ever since I conned Angelo into kissing me the first time. I’ve been waiting for him for so long, and for a couple of hours tonight, in a little world that was only big enough for the two of us, he was mine.
But I don’t know if I will be able to keep him. I’m afraid when tomorrow comes, I’ll be waiting for him again.
Eva Rosselli
”
”
Amy Harmon (From Sand and Ash)
“
Your mom probably wouldn't be too happy if you're dating someone who quit school."
I laugh. "Nope, don't think so. But I do think she likes you."
"Why do you say that?" he says, cocking his head at me.
"When I called her, she told me to tell you good morning. And then she told me you were 'a keeper.'" She also said he was hot, which is a ten and a half on the creep-o-meter.
"She won't think that when I start failing out of all my classes. I've missed too much school to give a convincing performance in that aspect."
"Maybe you and I could do an exchange," I say, cringing at how many different ways that could sound.
"You mean besides swapping spit?"
I'm hyperaware of the tickle in my stomach, but I say, "Gross! Did Rachel teach you that?"
He nods, still grinning. "I laughed for days."
"Anyway, since you're helping me try to change, I could help you with your schoolwork. You know, tutor you. We're in all the same classes together, and I could really use the volunteer hours for my college application."
His smile disappears as if I had slapped him. "Galen, is something wrong?"
He unclenches his jaw. "No."
"It was just a suggestion. I don't have to tutor you. I mean, we'll already be spending all day together in school and then practicing at night. You'll probably get sick of me." I toss in a soft laugh to keep it chit-chatty, but my innards feel as though they're cartwheeling.
"Not likely."
Our eyes lock. Searching his expression, my breath catches as the setting sun makes his hair shine almost purple. But it's the way each dying ray draws out silver flecks in his eyes that makes me look away-and accidentally glance at his mouth.
He leans in. I raise my chin, meeting his gaze. The sunset probably deepens the heat on my cheeks to a strawberry red, but he might not notice since he can't seem to decide if he wants to look at my eyes or my mouth. I can smell the salt on his skin, feel the warmth of his breath. He's so close, the wind wafts the same strand of my hair onto both our cheeks.
So when he eases away, it's me who feels slapped. He uproots the hand he buried in the sand beside me. "It's getting dark. I should take you home," he says. "We can do this again-I mean, we can practice again-tomorrow after school.
”
”
Anna Banks (Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy, #1))
“
That is the moment I begin to despise the idea of fame. What does it do for the bearer of the laurel? Who cares if your name is in the paper? Who cares if you are mentioned as one of the top-ten cyclists, boxers, batters, painters, poets, artists, fly fishermen in the world? Who cares if your name is written in history books? When you have died you can't read those history books. When you have died the small trace you have left behind, even if you win a Tony, an Emmy, an Oscar, an election, will lose its vibrancy, fade into an outline. Oh yes, him, I heard of him, I knew someone who read him once. What difference does it make to the corpse if his books are in libraries or not in libraries? Who cares if his plays are revived on the summer-stock circuit for one hundred years? Isn't the simplest touch of a child's arm on the face more important, isn't the good meal, the brush against a thigh, a hand held during a movie, a swim in the sea, aren't those things of equal importance as the sands of time come rushing down on our heads burying ambition and love, good and evil, breath, blood, brains, waste, memory, alike in oblivion?
”
”
Anne Roiphe
“
The morning after / my death”
The morning after
my death
we will sit in cafés
but I will not
be there
I will not be
*
There was the great death of birds
the moon was consumed with
fire
the stars were visible
until noon.
Green was the forest drenched
with shadows
the roads were serpentine
A redwood tree stood
alone
with its lean and lit body
unable to follow the
cars that went by with
frenzy
a tree is always an immutable
traveller.
The moon darkened at dawn
the mountain quivered
with anticipation
and the ocean was double-shaded:
the blue of its surface with the
blue of flowers
mingled in horizontal water trails
there was a breeze to
witness the hour
*
The sun darkened at the
fifth hour of the
day
the beach was covered with
conversations
pebbles started to pour into holes
and waves came in like
horses.
*
The moon darkened on Christmas eve
angels ate lemons
in illuminated churches
there was a blue rug
planted with stars
above our heads
lemonade and war news
competed for our attention
our breath was warmer than
the hills.
*
There was a great slaughter of
rocks of spring leaves
of creeks
the stars showed fully
the last king of the Mountain
gave battle
and got killed.
We lay on the grass
covered dried blood with our
bodies
green blades swayed between
our teeth.
*
We went out to sea
a bank of whales was heading
South
a young man among us a hero
tried to straddle one of the
sea creatures
his body emerged as a muddy pool
as mud
we waved goodbye to his remnants
happy not to have to bury
him in the early hours of the day
We got drunk in a barroom
the small town of Fairfax
had just gone to bed
cherry trees were bending under the
weight of their flowers:
they were involved in a ceremonial
dance to which no one
had ever been invited.
*
I know flowers to be funeral companions
they make poisons and venoms
and eat abandoned stone walls
I know flowers shine stronger
than the sun
their eclipse means the end of
times
but I love flowers for their treachery
their fragile bodies
grace my imagination’s avenues
without their presence
my mind would be an unmarked
grave.
*
We met a great storm at sea
looked back at the
rocking cliffs
the sand was going under
black birds were
leaving
the storm ate friends and foes
alike
water turned into salt for
my wounds.
*
Flowers end in frozen patterns
artificial gardens cover
the floors
we get up close to midnight
search with powerful lights
the tiniest shrubs on the
meadows
A stream desperately is running to
the ocean
The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage (The Post-Apollo Press, 1990)
”
”
Elinor Wylie
“
Some hunters like to shoot ostriches that have their heads buried in the sand.
”
”
Louis Sachar (Someday Angeline (Avon/Camelot Book))
“
Sometimes she thought of David as an ostrich, burying his head in the sand and forcing himself to believe that all would be well. It was one of the few things about him that she found frustrating. It wasn’t so much optimism as an inability to face reality and a tendency to look for the easy way out. It wasn’t going to work this time. There was no easy way out.
”
”
Rachel Abbott (Stranger Child (DCI Tom Douglas, #4))
“
The weights and measures of a marriage; we know things but we choose not to think about them. We choose to bury our heads in the sand. Mike says only one thing.
”
”
Carol Mason (The Love Market)
“
Here is the story, which I have abridged (with acknowledgement to Sergey Parkhomenko, journalist and broadcaster, who reported it): The River Ob makes a turn at Kolpashevo, and every year it eats away a few feet of a sand cliff there. On April 30, 1979, the Ob's waters eroded another six-foot section of bank. Hanging from the newly exposed wall were the arms, legs and heads of people who had been buried there. A cemetery at least several yards wide had been exposed. The bodies had been packed in and layered tightly. Some of the skulls from the uppermost layer rolled out from the sandbank, and little boys picked them up and began playing with them. News of the burial spread quickly and people started gathering at the sandbank. The police and neighbourhood watch volunteers quickly cordoned off the whole thing. Shortly afterwards, they built a thick fence around the crumbling sandbank, warning people away. The next day, the Communist Party called meeting in the town, explaining that those buried were traitors and deserters from the war. But the explanation wasn't entirely convincing. If this were so, why was everyone dressed in civilian clothes? Why had women and children been executed as well? And from where, for that matter, did so many deserters come in a town of just 20,000 people? Meanwhile, the river continued to eat away at the bank and it became clear that the burial site was enormous; thousands were buried there. People could remember that there used to be a prison on these grounds in the late 1930s. It was general knowledge that there were executions there, but nobody could imagine just how many people were shot. The perimeter fence and barbed wire had long ago been dismantled, and the prison itself was closed down. But what the town's people didn't know was that Kolpashevo's prison operated a fully-fledged assembly line of death. There was a special wooden trough, down which a person would descend to the edge of a ditch. There, he'd be killed by rifle fire, the shooter sitting in a special booth. If necessary, he'd be finished off with a second shot from a pistol, before being added to the next layer of bodies, laid head-to-toe with the last corpse. Then they'd sprinkle him lightly with lime. When the pit was full, they filled in the hole with sand and moved the trough over a few feet to the side, and began again. But now the crimes of the past were being revealed as bodies fell into the water and drifted past the town while people watched from the shore. In Tomsk, the authorities decided to get rid of the burial site and remove the bodies. The task, it turned out, wasn't so easy. Using heavy equipment so near a collapsing sandbank wasn't wise and there was no time to dig up all the bodies by hand. The Soviet leadership was in a hurry. Then from Tomsk came new orders: two powerful tugboats were sent up the Ob, right up to the riverbank, where they were tied with ropes to the shore, facing away from the bank. Then they set their engines on full throttle. The wash from the ships' propellers quickly eroded the soft riverbank and bodies started falling into the water, where most of them were cut to pieces by the propellers. But some of the bodies escaped and floated away downstream. So motorboats were stationed there where men hooked the bodies as they floated by. A barge loaded with scrap metal from a nearby factory was moored near the boats and the men were told to tie pieces of scrap metal to the bodies with wire and sink them in the deepest part of the river. The last team, also composed of local men from the town, worked a bit further downstream where they collected any bodies that had got past the boats and buried them on shore in unmarked graves or sank them by tying the bodies to stones. This cleanup lasted almost until the end of the summer.
”
”
Lawrence Bransby (Two Fingers On The Jugular)
“
Saintcrow watched her for several minutes, admiring her curvy bottom, the way the moon cast silver highlights in her hair, the sound of her heart as it began to beat fast. All his predatory instincts came to life as he watched her run away from him. Yanking off his boots and socks, he pursued her.
She let out a squeal when he grabbed her to the ground, twisting at the last minute so that she landed on top of him. She stared down at him, breathless, a hint of fear in her eyes.
He took a deep breath, inhaling the fragrance of her hair and skin, the tempting scent of her blood. Cupping the back of her head, he kissed her. The salty smells of sea and sand clung to her skin. He tasted it on her lips.
She moaned softly as he rolled over, tucking her beneath him. She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him closer. And all the while, she made little hungry sounds deep in her throat.
Holding her close, he whisked them up into the hills above the bay. Removing his long leather coat, he held her to his chest with one arm while he spread his coat on the ground, then lowered her onto it. With hands that moved faster than her eyes could follow, he removed her clothing and his own, and then he gathered her body to his, his hunger for her blood, his longing for her body, merging in a maelstrom of desire that would not be ignored.
She writhed beneath him, as eager as he, her hands roaming over him, now caressing him, now raking her nails across his back, down his chest.
With a low growl, he buried himself deep within her, felt her answering cry of pleasure as desire engulfed them.
”
”
Amanda Ashley (As Twilight Falls (Morgan Creek, #1))
“
We bury our heads in the sand and pretend we've moved on.
”
”
Pascal Bresson (For Justice: The Serge & Beate Klarsfeld Story)
“
Each year there are new scientific breakthroughs, many of which contradict the old ones. Blinding myself by becoming set in my bigoted, limited perspective was equivalent to an ostrich burying its head in the sand at the threat of encroaching danger.
”
”
Michael J Heil (Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose)
“
We’re all going to die eventually. You can be one of those people who bury your head in the sand to avoid talking about it all you want, but it’s life! Live or die. Heaven or hell. Angel or devil. It’s black and white. There are no gray areas.
”
”
Shantel Tessier (I Dare You (Dare, #1))
“
You’re just the same, David. You don’t like talking about anything unpleasant.” “ Who does! ” I exclaimed. “ But it’s like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand! ” “ Not really,” I said thoughtfully. “ It’s better to be happy and think of nice things instead of being miserable and worrying over nasty things.
”
”
D.E. Stevenson (Five Windows)
“
Like their wedding night, he quickly brought her passion back to life, and she was suddenly afraid he'd find his release and leave her wanting again as he had then. But even as she had that worry, he raised himself up on his knees, lifted her hips to the angle he wanted with one hand and then began to caress her above where they were joined with the other as he continued to thrust into her.
Conall watched her the whole time, his eyes moving over her jiggling breasts and then to her face as she twisted her head on the ground. Claray had the brief thought that she should be embarrassed, but was too wrapped up in the sensations he was causing in her to care, and then she cried out with her release, and Conall gave one last hard thrust, burying himself deep inside her as his shout of pleasure joined hers.
”
”
Lynsay Sands (Highland Wolf (Highland Brides, #10))
“
The lass was sleeping and the realization made him smile. He liked that she trusted him so much. He also liked the way she cuddled into him as she did. He liked the heat of her body against his own too. And he liked her smell. Every time her hair whipped into his face, he got a whiff of wildflowers and spring rain. It made him want to duck his head and inhale her scent more fully, and when she sighed and shifted against him again, Conall did.
He lowered his head until his nose brushed against her hair, inhaled deeply and closed his eyes as her aroma overwhelmed him, sweet and fresh despite the hours of travel. He wanted to run his hands through her glorious hair and bury his face in the soft tresses while continually inhaling.
”
”
Lynsay Sands (Highland Wolf (Highland Brides, #10))
“
Distraction and avoidance can look similar since many of the activities are the same. The difference is in the intention. In avoidance, the intention is to shove down emotions and bury your head in the sand. In distraction, the intention is to take a break from the emotionally intense experience with a plan to come back to it later when the intensity might be a little lower.
”
”
Rae McDaniel (Gender Magic: Live Shamelessly, Reclaim Your Joy, & Step into Your Most Authentic Self)
“
The men of the shop were discussing the great issues of the day. They’d done Brexit, they’d covered Russian interference in western politics, they’d stuck a foot in the toxic mud of the decline of the UK’s foreign policy into moral repugnance, they’d trawled through the septic wasteland of the narcissistic infantilism of Donald Trump, they’d cast a doleful eye over the concentration camps and the genocide of the Uighurs, they’d buried their heads in the sands of the desertification of planet earth, they’d planted a flag in the other habitable worlds of the galaxy, and now they were talking about bagels.
”
”
Douglas Lindsay (Curse Of The Clown (Barney Thomson #9))
“
The world is dangerous, hon. But we don’t hide from it. We don’t bury our heads in the sand and pretend all is well. If you want something, either you fight for it, or you let it go so someone else can.
”
”
Rina Kent (God of Wrath (Legacy of Gods, #3))
“
Burying your head in the sand, even for a short time, is self-defeating. Prepare yourself, and train for trouble. Face your problems and challenges head-on and defeat them,
”
”
V.C. Andrews (Forbidden Sister (The Forbidden #1))
“
There are two parts to any failure: There is the event itself, with all its attendant disappointment, confusion, and shame, and then there is our reaction to it. It is this second part that we control. Do we become introspective, or do we bury our heads in the sand? Do we make it safe for others to acknowledge and learn from problems, or do we shut down discussion by looking for people to blame? We must remember that failure gives us chances to grow, and we ignore those chances at our own peril.
”
”
Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration)
“
I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and go back to a point in time that felt comfortable and familiar. I hated feeling like a visitor in my own life, and no matter what I told myself when I woke up in the morning each day, I couldn’t shake feeling like everything I had come back to after my contract with the army was up was a life that belonged to someone else. My family didn’t feel right. The new dynamic in my relationship with Rule didn’t feel right. Trying to get used to Shaw being taken care of by my wayward and reckless little brother didn’t feel right. Crashing with Nash while I tried to get my shit straight didn’t feel right. Not having a job lined up or any clear direction of how to support myself doing something other than fighting a war quite possibly felt the most wrong out of it all.
”
”
Jay Crownover (Rome (Marked Men, #3))
“
He’s still there.
Kay diligently avoided eye contact—not that she could even make out the stranger’s eyes by moonlight from thirty yards away. She’d assumed she’d have the beach to herself on this brisk Tuesday night in late May. Didn’t everyone else have a life?
The wet sand at the water’s edge was smooth and frigid under her bare toes—her sandals dangled from her fingers. The crisp, salt-scented breeze billowed her calf-length skirt and open cotton blazer, and whipped strands of pale blonde hair across her face. She planted her feet as the next icy wave surged ashore, leaving her toes buried in sand. After two more waves, only the insteps showed.
A flash of silver drew her eye down the beach. Not silver, she saw now, but a white dress shirt being balled up and tossed to the sand. The shirt belonging to the stranger she mustn’t make eye contact with because you never know. He wasn’t looking her way, so she watched him. She watched him pull off his black shoes and socks. She watched him unzip his dark slacks and step out of them. She watched him drop his briefs and kick them away.
Her head snapped forward. That’s why you never make eye contact! Because you never know! Because the most normal-looking man can turn out to be some nut job who thinks nothing of stripping in front of a strange woman and—and—
She sneaked a peek.
And running into the ocean full-tilt.
”
”
Pam McKenna, Binding Agreement
“
Space is infinitely massive. Out there anything is possible. Now, what if the ‘impossible’ came knocking at our door? Something that is so completely alien and utterly against our comprehension. Will we bury our collective heads in the sand and stubbornly refuse to accept that what is right in front of us is real? Because if it is so impossible, then how could it possibly be real? –
”
”
James T. Crichton (The Light)
“
It does no good to bury your head in the sand, metaphorically, and ignore it.
”
”
Bruce Van Horn (Worry No More! 4 Steps to Stop Worrying and Start Living)
“
Abstraction can be a powerful tool, but it can also lead to heads buried in the sand. In
”
”
Peter Lucas (Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology)
“
A recognition that we Americans don’t have the stomach or the backbone to do the things we have to do to win this fight. Our fingers have been burned. Our image has taken a terrible beating. We’ve taken a look in the mirror, and we don’t like what we see. Our politicians would like us to make reservations on the first flight out of Iraq so they can start spending money on the sorts of things that win votes. Our people want to go back to their fat, happy lives. They want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that there really isn’t an organized force in their world that is actively plotting and planning their destruction. We’ve paid a terrible price for climbing into the gutter with the terrorists and fighting them on their level, but I’m sure you always knew we would. No one’s paid a higher price than you.
”
”
Daniel Silva
“
But when you know better, you’re supposed to do better, not fiercely defend the old ways. Some more support, so that we can all navigate our way through processing our feelings and communicating effectively, even when under pressure, would solve so many issues. It has far-reaching consequences beyond Postnatal Depression. It is important for tackling domestic violence, alcohol addiction, and so many other big problems our society faces. But unfortunately, we have a large percentage of our population burying their heads in the sand. And that makes me sad.
”
”
Robin Elizabeth (Confessions of a Mad Mooer: Postnatal Depression Sucks)
“
Like she couldn’t bury her head in the sand anymore.
”
”
Pippa Franks (The Seventh Day of May)
“
The ostrich-approach of burying your head in the sand, when confronting your areas of weakness, becomes a self-set trigger for failure.
”
”
Archibald Marwizi (Making Success Deliberate)
“
When an ostrich buries its head in the sand as danger approaches, it very likely takes the happiest course. It hides the danger, and then calmly says there is no danger; and if it feels perfectly sure there is none, why should it raise its head to see?
”
”
Charles Henry Peirce
“
POSSIBILITY
-“All things are possible to those who believe.
-“The scripture declares that without hope people perish, but with hope they not only survive but also prosper.”
-“People place limitations upon themselves, because they think they know who they are. Imagine, what greatness the world will discover if they knew what they can become.”
-“If we understand the power we have to call things into being, then our minds will become our laboratory for creative possibilities and the universe will be the marketplace for our resources.”
-“The only limitations we have are those we place upon ourselves due our lack of knowledge of our greatest gift… the power to use our mind, and the negative stories we tell ourselves.”
-“As long as you keep dreaming ideas will continue to flow.”
- Sekou Obadias – Author of “SOGANUTU” – A book of life’s Maxims
POSITIVE THINKING
-“Positive thinking can change body energy, suppress negative thoughts, and creates a positive outlook on life.”
-“Studies have shown that positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve physical health.”
-“Positive thinking does not mean, you bury your head in the sand and ignore life's unpleasant situations. What it does means is, you approach unpleasantness with a more positive and productive attitude.”
- Sekou Obadias – Author of “SOGANUTU” – A book of life’s Maxims
-“The power of positive thinking can give life to your dreams and change your destiny.
The first step to happiness and self-assuredness, is making the decision to be so.
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be”.
Abraham Lincoln
-“One of the greatest barriers to positive thinking is a negative attitude which comprises of the following:
anger, doubt, hate, fear, worry, resentment, selfishness,
pessimism, distrust, feeling of needy, loneliness and frustration.”
-“When it comes to Positive thinking, the mind can be compared to a garden… In a garden, weeds will grow continuously without effort.”
They will never stop growing so, you have to work non-stop to control them.
Good productive plants however, will require continuous focus, effort, time and energy in order to achieve a good harvest.
Likewise, you will never be able to stop negative thoughts from entering your mind, but you will have to learn to control and replace them. Positive thoughts on the other hand, are like good productive plants. In order for them to enter, and take root in your mind, you have to make deliberate and not stop efforts.”
- Sekou Obadias – Author of “SOGANUTU” – A book of life’s Maxims
”
”
Sekou Obadias
“
Exhausted, she leaned against the pillows, her hair streaming in a golden-brown cascade over the thin linen covering her shoulders. But she beamed a look of unadulterated happiness as she held out her hand to him, and something inside Cade crumbled to sand in recognizing the significance of her gesture. Cade fell to his knees beside Lily, and she brushed away the streaks of tears he hadn't realized were there. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face against her breasts. She stroked his hair. "Gracias, querida, muchas gracias... I love you so much. How can I say it? How can I thank you? I did not know... I thought a child would hold you, I wanted you to bear my child, but I did not mean to cause you such pain." The piano crashed into a resounding "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to celebrate this victorious Fourth, and Lily smiled and stroked Cade's thick black hair, feeling the glory of this day seep into her bones where she could remember and cherish it forever. "It's because I love you that I wanted your child. The pain is just the price we pay to have what we want. Can I see him now? Will you bring him to me?" Cade jerked his head up to meet the blazing happiness of blue eyes and knew Lily spoke what was in her heart. It was difficult for him to absorb. He had been a man alone for too long, an outcast wanted by nobody, yet this woman knocked down doors none had dared approach to declare her love for him. He stroked her cheek, his dark hand contrasting with her light skin, and she kissed the web of flesh beneath his thumb. Cade accepted that as confirmation of her words and allowed a smile to form. "I
”
”
Patricia Rice (Texas Lily (Too Hard to Handle, #1))
“
It is never prudent to bury our heads in the sand when in distress or faced with adversity; to place our hands over our eyes in a feeble attempt to hide from the inevitable.
”
”
Carlos Wallace (The Other 99 T.Y.M.E.S: Train Your Mind to Enjoy Serenity)
“
Einstein’s Stubbornness Contributes to Failure Ironically, Einstein’s rejection of quantum mechanics may have been a factor which contributed to his failure to develop a unified theory. Einstein’s refusal to accept quantum mechanics and the probabilities they present caused him to turn his back on more recent developments in physics. It also served to alienate him from the rest of the physics community. Yet the harder Einstein worked on his unified theory, and with each successive failure, he found himself more isolated than before. Einstein was aware of this increasing ostracism, but was unwilling to change. Late in his life he would comment, “I must seem like an ostrich who forever buries its head in the relativistic sand in order not to face the evil quanta.” Einstein’s
”
”
Alexander Kennedy (Einstein: A Life of Genius (The True Story of Albert Einstein) (Historical Biographies of Famous People))
“
The bride price taught her that nothing mattered. Civilizations rose and fell. Scriptures twisted. Promised lands fell to dust. Freak rains buried sand dunes in overgrowth.
”
”
Tim Lieder (She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror)
“
Popular author Philip Yancey states that the seven deadly sins might today be renamed the seven seductive virtues. The truth of his statement is evident when we stop to recognize how greed and envy drive our economy, how anger fuels terrorism, how lust is openly celebrated on television, how athletes and other entertainers go far beyond pride, arrogantly flaunting their prowess with various forms of exhibitionism. One has to have his head buried in the sand to not see how gluttony and sloth are rampant in our country.
”
”
Michael Tymn (The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die)
“
Not that all humans are like that. There are strong ones among them, ones born with a sword in their hands and fire in their hearts, just waiting to take me on. But it’s not these people that I admire the most. Their courage in the face of fear is a gift; they didn’t break their backs in their collision with me. No, it is the weaklings. The ones who quiver and shake in fear of me, desperate to bury their heads in the sand until the storm is over. But instead of hiding, they brandish their tiny, little penknives and charge. Nobody, not even Fear, can take their dreams away from them. It is then that I catch a spark of a person’s worth. For they are not really weaklings at all. They are the bravest of the brave. I
”
”
J.D. Jacobs (BULLIED (The Academy Series Book 1))
“
With a snarl of pain, she forced herself to sit up, her head spinning with the sudden movement. One hand touched her temple, sticky with dried blood. She winced, feeling a gash along her eyebrow. It was long but shallow, and already scabbing over.
She clenched her jaw, teeth grinding, as she surveyed the beach with squinting eyes. The ocean stared back at her, empty and endless, a wall of iron blue. Then she noticed shapes along the beach, some half-buried in the sand, others caught in the rhythmic pull of the tide. She narrowed her eyes and the shapes solidified.
A torn length of sail floated, tangled up with rope. A shattered piece of the mast angled out of the sand like a pike. Smashed crates littered the beach, along with other debris from the ship. Bits of hull. Rigging. Oars snapped in half.
The bodies moved with the waves.
Her steady breathing lost its rhythm, coming in shorter and shorter gasps until she feared her throat might close.
Her thoughts scattered, impossible to grasp.
All thoughts but one.
“DOMACRIDHAN!”
Her shout echoed, desperate and ragged.
“DOMACRIDHAN!”
Only the waves answered, crashing endless against the shore.
She forgot her training and forced herself to stand, nearly falling over with dizziness. Her limbs aches but she ignored it, lunging toward the waterline. Her lips moved, her voice shouting his name again, though she couldn’t hear it above the pummel of her own heart.
Sorasa Sarn was no stranger to corpses. She splashed into the waves with abandon, even as her head spun.
Sailor, sailor, sailor, she noted, her desperation rising with every Tyri uniform and head of black hair. One of them looked ripped in half, missing everything from the waist down. His entrails floated with the rear of him, like a length of bleached rope.
She suspected a shark got the best of him.
Then her memories returned with a crash like the waves.
The Tyri ship. Nightfall. The sea serpent slithering up out of the deep. The breaking of a lantern. Fire across the deck, slick scales running over my hands. The swing of a greatsword, Elder-made. Dom silhouetted against a sky awash with lightning. And then the cold, drowning darkness of the ocean.
A wave splashed up against her and Sorasa stumbled back to the shore, shivering. She had not waded more than waist deep, but her face felt wet, water she could not understand streaking her cheeks.
Her knees buckled and she fell, exhausted. She heaved a breath, then two.
And screamed.
Somehow the pain in her head paled in comparison to the pain in her heart. It dismayed and destroyed her in equal measure. The wind blew, stirring salt-crusted hair across her face, sending a chill down to her soul. It was like the wilderness all over again, the bodies of her Amhara kin splayed around her.
No, she realized, her throat raw. This is worse. There is not even a body to mourn.
She contemplated the emptiness for awhile, the beach and the waves, and the bodies gently pressing into the shore. If she squinted, they could only be debris from the ship, bits of wood instead of bloated flesh and bone.
The sun glimmered on the water. Sorasa hated it.
Nothing but clouds since Orisi, and now you choose to shine.
”
”
Victoria Aveyard (Fate Breaker (Realm Breaker, #3))
“
You can find a way, or bury your head in the sand, girl. Both require digging.
”
”
Anna Hackett (Overlord (Galactic Kings #1))
“
Aren’t you just a tiny bit triggered?” her fiancé asked, bewildered. “My triggers are covered in wet sand,” she’d said, “because my head is a giant cement mixer.” “So, you do have feelings,” her fiancé said. “They’re just buried. In cement. Maybe it’s time you start breaking up the cement.
”
”
Jen Beagin (Big Swiss)
“
Western leaders simply ignore the grim on-the-ground realities of multiculturalism: whether it is mass-grooming gangs in the UK, fire in the streets of Paris, or out-of-control crime in American cities, the political class still bury their ostrich-heads in the sand and pretend that there is no qualitative difference between peoples. Won’t someone think of the curry houses.
”
”
Neema Parvini (The Prophets of Doom)
“
What really sets optimists apart is that they have better coping strategies in the face of adversity—they confront problems rather than avoid them, plan better for the future, focus on what they can control and change, and persist when they encounter obstacles instead of giving up. It is important to add that optimists do not have their heads buried in the sand. Obviously it would not be good for people to smoke cigarettes with abandon, eat whatever they like, and drive 120 miles per hour on the interstate because they are convinced that nothing bad will happen to them. Instead, optimists see the world the way it really is and recognize the obstacles in their path, but also believe that they can overcome these obstacles by planning for them and redoubling their efforts when they fail. In short, optimists don’t just sit back and think positive thoughts—they have an adaptive, healthy way of coping with the world.
”
”
Timothy D. Wilson (Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change)
“
At Sand Creek, we heard it said that they mowed us down with their howitzers. Volunteer militia under Colonel John Chivington came to kill us—we were mostly women, children, and elders. The men were away to hunt. They’d told us to fly the American flag. We flew that and a white flag too. Surrender, the white flag waved. We stood under both flags as they came at us. They did more than kill us. They tore us up. Mutilated us. Broke our fingers to take our rings, cut off our ears to take our silver, scalped us for our hair. We hid in the hollows of tree trunks, buried ourselves in sand by the riverbank. That same sand ran red with blood. They tore unborn babies out of bellies, took what we intended to be, our children before they were children, babies before they were babies, they ripped them out of our bellies. They broke soft baby heads against trees. Then they took our body parts as trophies and displayed them on a stage in downtown Denver. Colonel Chivington danced with dismembered parts of us in his hands, with women’s pubic hair, drunk, he danced, and the crowd gathered there before him was all the worse for cheering and laughing along with him. It was a celebration.
”
”
Tommy Orange (There There)
“
Do You Like Animals? is a wild animal menagerie of fun as children view pictures and read stories about elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, hippos, zebras, giraffes, camels, kangaroos, penguins, and much more. The book helps children meet the animals up close and learn fun facts about how they live in the wild. The author/illustrator viewed the animals in the jungles, bush, and deserts of Africa, Australia, and South America before writing about them and painting them in forms that would be enjoyable and educational for children.
For example, children will learn why elephants have trunks, why giraffes and leopards have spots, whether zebras’ stripes are black-on-white or white-on-black, how long hippos can hold their breath, the amazing characteristics of howler monkeys’ tails, why some kangaroos have a pouch, whether ostriches really bury their heads in the sand, the types of camels that have either one or two humps…
Through stories that rhyme and pictures painted with punch this book is a must for children who like to have fun while they learn!
”
”
M.S. Gatto (Do You Like Wild Animals?)
“
A new pride my ego taught me, and this I teach men: no longer to bury one’s head in the sand of heavenly things, but to bear it freely, an earthly head, which creates a meaning for the earth.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“
There’s following the rules, and then there’s burying your head in the sand.
”
”
Marissa Levien (The World Gives Way)
“
Allison began broadcasting the countdown. Richard Feynman, a future Nobel laureate who had entered physics as an adolescent via radio tinkering, tinkered the radio to life. Men began moving into position. “We were told to lie down on the sand,” Teller protests, “turn our faces away from the blast, and bury our heads in our arms. No one complied. We were determined to look the beast in the eye.
”
”
Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition)
“
It's when you bury your head in the sand that you leave your brain exposed.
”
”
Anthony T. Hincks
“
People with a fixed mindset believe they are born naturally gifted at doing some things, but incapable of others. This black-and-white way of thinking often obstructs their development. Failure is a disaster to a person with fixed mindset. When it happens, they will bury their heads in the sand or blame others.
”
”
Ash Ali
“
He had passed beyond the lure of champagne and oysters, beyond the need of light and space. He was like the dodo which buries its head in the sand and whistles out of its asshole.
”
”
Henry Miller (Tropic of Capricorn (Miller, Henry))
“
When there is danger on your doorstep, you want to act almost like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
”
”
Diet Eman (Things We Couldn't Say)
“
sheltered spot on the cove. As she headed toward the spot, Cara mentally compared the evidence photos in the police database to the lay of the land. Images flashed in her head—a hand half-buried in the sand, and the boot, covered in grime,
”
”
Iris Yamashita (City Under One Roof (Cara Kennedy, #1))
“
I have been to Mont Saint-Michel, which I had not seen before. What a sight, when one arrives as I did, at Avranches toward the end of the day! The town stands on a hill, and I was taken into the public garden at the extremity of the town. I uttered a cry of astonishment. An extraordinarily large bay lay extended before me, as far as my eyes could reach, between two hills which were lost to sight in the mist; and in the middle of this immense yellow bay, under a clear, golden sky, a peculiar hill rose up, sombre and pointed in the midst of the sand. The sun had just disappeared, and under the still flaming sky the outline of that fantastic rock stood out, which bears on its summit a fantastic monument. At daybreak I went to it. The tide was low as it had been the night before, and I saw that wonderful abbey rise up before me as I approached it. After several hours’ walking, I reached the enormous mass of rocks which supports the little town, dominated by the great church. Having climbed the steep and narrow street, I entered the most wonderful Gothic building that has ever been built to God on earth, as large as a town, full of low rooms which seem buried beneath vaulted roofs, and lofty galleries supported by delicate columns. I entered this gigantic granite jewel which is as light as a bit of lace, covered with towers, with slender belfries to which spiral staircases ascend, and which raise their strange heads that bristle with chimeras, with devils, with fantastic animals, with monstrous flowers, and which are joined together by finely carved arches, to the blue sky by day, and to the black sky by night.
”
”
Elsinore Books (Classic Short Stories: The Complete Collection: All 100 Masterpieces)
“
I have been to Mont Saint-Michel, which I had not seen before. What a sight, when one arrives as I did, at Avranches toward the end of the day! The town stands on a hill, and I was taken into the public garden at the extremity of the town. I uttered a cry of astonishment. An extraordinarily large bay lay extended before me, as far as my eyes could reach, between two hills which were lost to sight in the mist; and in the middle of this immense yellow bay, under a clear, golden sky, a peculiar hill rose up, sombre and pointed in the midst of the sand. The sun had just disappeared, and under the still flaming sky the outline of that fantastic rock stood out, which bears on its summit a fantastic monument. At daybreak I went to it. The tide was low as it had been the night before, and I saw that wonderful abbey rise up before me as I approached it. After several hours’ walking, I reached the enormous mass of rocks which supports the little town, dominated by the great church. Having climbed the steep and narrow street, I entered the most wonderful Gothic building that has ever been built to God on earth, as large as a town, full of low rooms which seem buried beneath vaulted roofs, and lofty galleries supported by delicate columns. I entered this gigantic granite jewel which is as light as a bit of lace, covered with towers, with slender belfries to which spiral staircases ascend, and which raise their strange heads that bristle with chimeras, with devils, with fantastic animals, with monstrous flowers, and which are joined together by finely carved arches, to the blue sky by day, and to the black sky by night. When I had reached the summit, I said to the monk who accompanied me: “Father, how happy you must be here!” And he replied: “It is very windy, Monsieur;
”
”
Elsinore Books (Classic Short Stories: The Complete Collection: All 100 Masterpieces)
“
Yes, meditation can help with our stress, but if the cause of our stress is another identifiable problem, we must deal with the problem and not mask it in the name of protecting our spiritual credibility. We must not bury our heads in the sand; we must not ignore the signs that indicate we are struggling with our mental health by covering them up with our spiritual practices. Spiritual practices are meant to awaken our deeper self. They are not there to deal with our physical or mental ailments, although they may have that after-effect and can complement our healing.
”
”
Gaur Gopal Das (Energize Your Mind: A Monk’s Guide to Mindful Living)
“
Each day’s a struggle and mostly I’m in denial. That’s often how men cope, I think. They bury their heads in the sand and hope all will be well.’ ‘I understand. What we can’t fix, we try to put out of our mind.
”
”
Jay Gill (Murder in Fulbridge Village: A 1920s Mystery)
“
Sometimes she thought of David as an ostrich, burying his head in the sand and forcing himself to believe that all would be well. It was one of the few things about him that she found frustrating. It wasn’t so much optimism as an inability to face reality and a tendency to look for the easy way out.
”
”
Rachel Abbott (Stranger Child (DCI Tom Douglas, #4))