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that you love what you are

my friend sofia finds the best things in the world, the most perfect things. this is one, for all of us who are right now in the snow and cold.

Lines for Winter
by Mark Strand
(for Ros Krauss)

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon’s gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

here is a video of mary louise parker, (who i love and try to emulate in ways that definitely don’t quite work, as she is long and awkward where i am soft and comfortable) reading this poem.

people keep asking me how i am doing these days, how i am finding detroit. i am finding myself in detroit, and i am loving myself in detroit. there is work here i am suited to, and visions here i am inspired by. i sit in conversations where people are able to speak to lineage, tradition, ancestry, meditation, capitalism, deep ecology, life schooling, healing and resilience – and these are meetings, where we are doing logistical work.

i am being localized, and challenged, and pulled into the glorious mundane that is daily revolutionary work. i couldn’t be more grateful.

and the little blessings keep coming. i went into the Y today and they had a special where they were waiving the joining fee. the family membership here is the same as a single membership in oakland – i am going to get my swim on.

and i baked my first bread loaves, and have plenty more dough in the fridge!