I'm back!
Quick update + a poem + recommendations
Hey! Nice to see you all again!
My apologies for the prolonged silence. I had hoped to post new writing from Portugal, but—fun discovery!—Substack only enables you to write and send posts on laptop.
The good news is, I have plenty of new content for my weekly posts. In the meantime, here’s a poem I started, some good reads and other things that made me happy.
And don’t forget—if there’s a question you’ve been pondering and you want to open a conversation, send me your requests.
The surfers, Machico, 05/2024
There were 7 or 8 of them bobbing in the water, surfboards lashed to their ankles, I didn’t expect the tears but it doesn’t surprise me any more, it truly felt like a miracle to be there, to witness the undeterred curve of their spines as they ducked into the hollows, the black contour of their skulls popping up again and again through the foam, my voice crackling as I cheered them on, not at all concerned if anyone heard me in this unexpected moment of bliss—and also, I am softer than I used to be, tears come faster since my father passed, to mark joy, to relieve pain, often both at the same time—in those final days, the last of the walls I had built against feeling were broken down as ruthlessly as time and entropy were breaking down his physical body, so many new doors opening in my awareness as all the doors were closing in his—but I am grateful that It happened that way, because when the grief came, the turbid waters surged readily through the opaque chambers of my heart, my lungs, there was no holding it back, every cell in my body surrendered to the force of it, just went slack and I let the tide carry me until the push turned back to pull, the clouds of sand dissolved under my feet and I could safely turn in the right direction, cutting through the water with mightier strokes, my legs long behind me, going so much farther than before.
What I was reading
What I was listening to
See you soon! xo