i am grateful for:
1) pages 61 – 64ish in the september issue of yoga journal (with alanis on the cover). it’s the first piece i’ve written in some time that really feels like mine, with my voice and i’m proud of it. and so grateful to my editors for letting me write about 9/11. 10 years. holy mama. the essay is more articulate than that, but now i just want to weep as that date nears. so much. a decade. and yesterday. and forever ago. i am grateful for my life. for all that hell taught me about mortality and love and community. for the tender spots in the pain. for the god/light in the darkness.
2) a sweet sweet weekend with my sweetie
3) august. i love august. brutal and beautiful and the peak of ripeness and warmth and freedom and watermelon and lakes and sidewalks that burn and radiate. august has the breath of a sweaty lover who looks into your eyes while you make heat together.
4) mini coopers
5) visiting with m&p&l&a. so fun to play, to fly with fairy wings and do dramatic renditions of mo willems books that are met with squeals and claps and giggles. and bubbles! shiny bubbles that bend rainbows. and pop!
6) yoga in small towns = swan dives that can be done with arms extended out without smacking anyone in the face. and personal attention. and hands-on assists. and a dog sleeping in the middle of the sun dappled studio on a yoga blanket that is clearly his. and quiet. and space. and working harder because there is no where to hide, no one’s wake to ride.
7) dancing leaves
8) a quieter brain
9) sleep
10) cotton candy sunsets
2 Comments
i love #8…
i have faith i’ll get there too:)
sending you love
Re: #1
Hi Valerie,
I read your piece “i love new york” in Yoga Journal last night and was moved to tears. It is absolutely beautiful–one of the best pieces of “9/11” writing I’ve read, possibly ever.
I too was in Manhattan on September 11, and I wrestle often with the events of that day–and the dust I returned to (my apartment being only 3 blocks away from the site)–and the year I spent living so close. Too often I find that the nuance and depth of our true feelings about the attacks are lost in media coverage and nationalist slogans.
Thank you for so movingly articulating the pain and confusion and resilience of the city and its people. May you continue to find the “tender spots in the pain.”
Sara