If we were having coffee today, I would greet you with a big hug, a hearty “Happy May Day!” and a fresh plate of honey lavendar scones. Let’s sit on the patio and chat if the wind does not blow us away.
I’m getting ready for a visitor this week. Throughout Covid, the clutter has been piling up… both physically in our home and in my own mind and soul. This morning I purged the fridge and pantry – it felt very good. Tomorrow donation boxes will finally leave my space and I think that will also help me energetically.
I find it fascinating that clutter around me truly does seem to clutter me mentally and emotionally. Of course, I usually don’t get that until the clutter is removed I’ve been harming myself. And yes, I’m always trying to not have clutter here in the first place but, well, there you go. I am after all terribly human.
That’s the phrase that has been resonating with me this week after listening to the audio version of Roxanne Gay’s “Hunger.” It’s a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time but stayed away from – mainly because of fears it would deeply resonate. Sometimes we want that, sometimes I fear a book may break me open again over a topic that has “scarred.” The book did not “break me” but it was wonderful to not feel alone with so many of the same thoughts and feelings surrounding weight, food, rape, etc. And to have the author read their work – such a level of vunerability and intimacy it offered and I am so grateful Ms. Gay did so.
I highly recommend the book and doubly so the audio version. Are you reading anything interesting?
Writing this book is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. To lay myself so vulnerable has not been an easy thing. To face myself and what living in my body has been like has not been an easy thing, but I wrote this book because it felt necessary. In writing this memoir of my body, in telling you these truths about my body, I am sharing my truth and mine alone. I understand if that truth is not something you want to hear. The truth makes me uncomfortable too. But I am also saying, here is my heart, what’s left of it. Here I am showing you the ferocity of my hunger. Here I am, finally freeing myself to be vulnerable and terribly human. Here I am, reveling in that freedom. Here. See what I hunger for and what my truth has allowed me to create.
— Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
Today’s #WeekendCoffeeShare is single-origin from Colombia.
And because of Ms. Gay sharing so openly, it has also encouraged me to get back into my own daily writing practice. Just like “stuff,” words have been collecting in my mind, stagnating the creative juices for the last few years. I’m ready to peek myself out again into the world, maybe show a little sensitive skin, start caring for myself more fiercely again too.
Wishing you a wonderful week. I’ll be around if you want to stop by!