Thinking about how life is a series of

paradoxical moments.

As a writer, I must write back toward these questions and stories with honesty, with clarity. To evade such questions, to elide the parts of the stories where I’d simply like to look away, feels like a betrayal.

Todd Davis, Poet

I woke last Thursday on that contentious (in so many ways) holiday Thanksgiving thinking how grateful I am that all 3 of our adult children were here with us. As squishy-full as it makes our small home when everyone is visiting, we are together. A bit frayed and tired and tripling our coffee budget, but together. 

Because of the day, I also woke thinking about how we live in a colonial-era home built on the unceded land of the Lenni Lenape. How we benefit from assorted forms of unearned privilege. How what safety and comfort we experience is tainted by its origins, and also fragile in the push-pull of current economic and political tides. How I believe safety is a basic right for all living beings, human and more-than-human and I have a responsibility to continue doing something about that.

The same glorious chrysanthemums who appeared in my last letter. They heartily withstood several below-freezing nights until a final hard frost, then stood all morning, sparkling, in an exultation of almost defiant beauty.

I wake thinking about similar things nearly every day, these days. Thinking about how life is a series of paradoxical moments. Today—grief and gratitude. Another day—relief and suffering. Another day—joy and anger.

I think about how my body is the fulcrum holding these seeming opposites together in the space of my awareness and how that physical tension can create the energy I need to do those somethings. Though, sometimes, it’s also the thing that unravels me.

I think about words and language and how they can create connection and understanding or something very, very different.

In the coming days and for the coming year, may we nourish one another.

May we listen deeply and speak thoughtfully, remembering our words have the power to both create and break.

With appreciation,

Tracie

tracienichols.com

P.S. This Saturday is the last of the Saturday Writing groups for 2022. Come write with us!

P.P.S You can check out the work of Todd Davis here.