Oh, but I sigh for happiness—for a world which isn’t always ‘out of joint’. This constant living on the defensive - how tiring it is! Why won’t people live more freely and more widely. But no, there they are—smug—like little plants in little pots—that ought to have been put out in the garden years ago—years ago. But they prefer their life on a shelf—out of the “full force” of the sun and wind—each one tight in itself and away from its companions. But Fear, Distrust, Cowardice, Smugness—surely they are more horrid worms than one would find in any garden. But I don’t give up hope—I can’t, and here is this divine, cloudless day waiting for something more to flower.
Katherine Mansfield. Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell, August 22, 1918.
