notes:
- the trip to Real de Catorce, reminded by an entire newspaper article convincing me of reasons why i need to go back to San Luis Potosi
- dreams about snakes
- thoughts on Gravity, the importance of taking in the moment's beauty despite the immediate danger or possibility of fear, how to slow breath in times of panic
- conservation of oxygen
- tempo of movement
- something to be said for losing arguments because you, in fact, can see both sides


also--


There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they’ve been set down—
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.

And see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There’s a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,

as all flesh,
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chest—

And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies,
stronger, darker, and proud;
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric
that nothing can tear or mend.


— For What Binds Us - Jane Hirshfield