Elli

“PRAYER FOR P- (excerpt)

I’ll claim cartographer’s liberties. I’ll claim
omissions for the greater good. I am grateful
my imagination has been drafted for the greater good,
especially since what I mean to do is direct. I want to

be your guide. In those unknown parts, they drew danger- sea scorpions,
enormous octopi, leviathan- but also wonders, rising suns. The open sea is just that,
open. My dictionary has sixty-four definitions for the word open,
none of them defining how I feel now, my heart

a little more open because without her,
not the memory of her, the knowledge, not the insubstantial
decoys my mind sets up in lieu of her, but without the woman,

friend, her embodied body, without her this space is a little more
open…those old map makers wanted us to want,
almost as much as they wanted us to fear,
to get to the places beyond the places we know. This is the way,
how we have always found more.”
― Camille T. Dungy, Smith Blue

“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”
― Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

“When you feel thankful, you can be appreciative for a moment, then not at all the next. It seems the tank is full, then it becomes empty, and the cycle continues. If you don't feel the same gratitude for a moment, know that it's possible in the next moment that comes around.”
― J.R. Rim

“Sometimes in life we need to sit with things for a minute, maybe on the fringe of things, not only to savor the wealth of the moment, but take a moment to figure out how to respectfully engage it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough, The Eighth Page: A Christmas Journey