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VII. The Quiet Change A neighbor’s child brings him a small plant, a sprig in a paper cup with a cracked soil crust. “For you,” the child says. He accepts it, palms trembling slightly at the plant’s flimsy stems. He places it by his windowsill where morning light will find it. That night he writes nothing for hours. Instead, he learns the contours of patience: the tiny, daily work of watering, of turning leaves toward light, of pruning dead edges. The plant does what plants do—slowly, insistently, it roots.