Nina Simone said you got to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served. this quote, paraphrased, floats through my consciousness kind of often, i’m not sure why.
the flip side of this, of late, is you have to get up when you are not serving love, or you don’t have an appetite. the flip flip side of this is where are the tables where love is being served?
i’m feeling grateful that love is being served at all, and nearby, and that "it might stay for a while if you asked it to"1
Bunny Michaels wrote “love cannot be diminished even if it leaves your awareness” which i’ve scrawled on the whiteboard above my desk.
and i think about love, the choice to love in a country, a place like this. and i was thinking about capillary action: the ascension of liquids due to adhesive or cohesive forces, water flowing against gravity in a small space.
as powerful and heavy as gravity is, water travels upward through plant stems and grasping paper towels. it defies, slinks skyward to nourish and refresh. water sticks together.
and love makes me stand up a little straighter, walk a little taller, rest a little sooner. the small gestures, the kindness, the gentleness, the roasting.
towards you, amidst and despite this weight. rising in small spaces.
G.E. Patterson, To and From, p. 59 ↩