Listen, Vivek

Hello Dear Ones. There have been challenging times where I live. Somehow, the week that all this happened, I started listening to this episode of On Being, featuring Vivek Murthy. And then I recommended the episode to everyone I saw or spoke to for the next week. Today’s draft was inspired by one part of that interview and the struggle between a set of words that hits the spot — sort of.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedListen Vivek. It's all well and nice and flowery to tell me Love is stronger, is in fact the strongest force in the universe. Stronger, even, than Borg technology or the second amendment. This is all very nice and helps with one deep breath, one long slow exhale. But the next moment after that, what then? What do I do with my hands, is what I'm asking. Who do I reach for, whose body do I embrace, allowing our full weight to rest on one another? Where is the patch of soil where I go to get my hands dirty, the weight that is mine to lift, the part of road where my rubber hits. Because it's just not enough to be sitting here with my clean fingernails, watching the waves of anxiety roll while I try to regulate my breath.