The Magic of Time

Previously posted on TinyLetter

My little heart ventricles,

Too much? Or just right? I hope this is finding you well. And by that, I mean close to where all the warm things exist – it’s freaking cold, and the sky won’t turn off the snow. Now that my busy season has started (Everyone: File your taxes!), these letters are going to be showing up in your inbox at the most random of times. Which is kind of fun and unpredictable, two adjectives not usually associated with my everyday personality. Now, jumping right in…

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I have finally found a good rhythm with reading again. It feels really wonderful when an instant connection with a book is made. My last and current read, though non-fiction and fiction, have a running theme: time and relationships. Educated by Tara Westover is a memoir that walks a reader through her life growing up beneath the powers of conspiracy, mental illness, and abuse. It more-so speaks to the familial relationships that both formed and destroyed her. I am currently halfway through Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. This piece of fiction weaves through the lives of 12 different characters, slowly drawing and connecting dots of their stories along the way. Stories full of disease, death, addiction, and resilience. It’s a slow burn but I am enjoying it; it’s like prose and poetry married.

Looking at these themes, I began pondering what it means to reflect on the relationships that have shaped and disappointed me, encouraged and pushed, stalled, or steadied me. And how time, not linear and drawn out, but circular in how it brings us back, holds up mirrors, reminds us of the thread that we are made up of. It never ceases to amaze me, the magic of time. Memories, gruesome or giving, seem to always be found in the hat of time, waiting for us to reflect and notice. Time holds all the contradictions relationships sow.

Who would we be today without the pain and the healing that both relationship and time offers?

I write this on a very late night after a week and a half of norovirus ravaging our household. What I am saying is: this may or may not make sense. But I always trust even one word to land somewhere with you.

What does time look and feel like for you?

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Recommendation:

On Being with Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons – a talk about the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s and the leaders behind the scenes. “He had to back down because Black women are the backbone – were and still are – of all our churches. It’s so many stories that people don’t know about the movement. People just want to focus on Dr. King, John Lewis, Rosa Parks. But this was a movement. This was the heart and soul of these communities that gathered together and put their hearts, their minds, and their wills into bringing about change.”

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Namaste & Norovirus
xo bre