Over time (too much, arguably) I have learned that her smell comforts me. It works best if it’s a shirt, one she has worn enough to sweat in. And then, while she’s away, I wear the shirt, and am fine. And the missing can feel good, instead of panicky. Missing puts love into relief, doesn’t it? You can see the landscape.
I’ve remembered another line from that poem. In evening, this late inevitable chant. I am going to love myself. I have gone off to love myself.
This late, inevitable chant.
Our frailties have to be OK. With ourselves. They have to be OK, or they have to change.
About A FIELD GUIDE TO DECEPTION, here is some lovely news, just in time for Christmas: http://www.afterellen.com/books/2009/12/across-the-page
I find it fascinating how love changes the level of acceptance we have with our own flaws. A little more here, a little less over there. It all shifts, to see it through their eyes.
Congrats on the review, by the way. It’s very gratifying to watch this thing unfold.
To be loved because of our flaws, rather than in spite of them. Yes. Yes.
And thank you!
Loved because of our flaws. That made me think instantly of my mother and me. Rather than my partner and me.
Do you get images in your head for certain books? I picture Field Guide like something bright, shining, unfolding in the sun. Red Audrey was turbulent, roiling, like waves.
I do get images in my head for certain books, including my own. At first, I was surprised by the image you have for FIELD GUIDE, but it made sense the more I reflected. A long, hot summer.
I love that word: roiling.