February 22, 2022
Gleanings
- But I was there and I can tell you this: People at the convoy don’t want democracy. They want no rules. And that’s definitely not the same thing.
- Censorship is on the march once again in North America.
- It was 43 years ago today that a friend called and asked if I’d like to join him and another poet for dinner before a reading that evening at Open Space down on Fort Street.
- How Cookbooks And James Barber Helped Me Find Fat Joy
- To be able to feel our feelings, to be with the whole spectrum of them, without added stories or narratives, but to turn towards and be with the sensations in our bodies, to let them “ferment and season” us can be so hard, so uncomfortable to do …
- The world is opening up and life is about to get
enjoyable and excitingcomplicated. What happens when all the divided parties meet again over the dinner table? How can we choose what our own personal normal looks like? - So much of what my friends give me is intangible: the hope, the reassurance, the emphatic listening, a weekly dinner routine, a push to go for a walk, or snowshoe, or ski. It’s lovely to have these reminders surrounding me too. I am not alone. All will be well.
- God, it is hard to grieve. So damn hard. How to incorporate these prickles of loss, joy, -with appreciation, love, self-reflections on our own mortality, a life reflected upon, memories of earliest life, and latest, all the temperatures mix and all at one single minute and then you are left on a ravaged beach after a tsunami. not even ready to look at the remains.
- The two things I’ve heard or read most often about grief are “it takes time” and “wait until you’re ready.” These are helpful comments, as far as anything is helpful; they lessen my anxiety and confusion by reminding me that there is no timeline, there are no rules, there are no ‘oughts’ that follow from this shocking and disruptive ‘is.’
- In a way this a biography. We certainly learn a lot about Orwell’s life. But more importantly we learn about the interconnections of a life with the the currents of history and movements. That an individual can apprehend the horrors of political systems, the damage done to humans, but can also find room for hope and optimism.
- I feel an affinity for my bathroom spider. I wonder if Charlotte has anything to do with that?
- It happens quite often, that I am drawn to a piece of art, one that I want to share here, but that I don’t because the artist’s statement gets in the way.
