And So, As The Light Died, We Put Our Mouths On The Least Lovable, The Too-full, The Easy-bruised, We

“And so, as the light died, we put our mouths on the least lovable, the too-full, the easy-bruised, we shouted, I choose you, and you, and you, and you, and canned that hunger, and spooned it into our mouths on the coldest days.”

⏤Franny Choi, “Perihelion: A History of Touch”

“The consolation was, OK, Cain lives. He begs God to kill him, and God says, no, that would be too easy. That wouldn’t do the lesson. You’re going to live. And you’re going to live in shame and isolation and at the fringes of all human worlds. And I thought, well, that’s it. That’s what I’ll do — because I didn’t want to die, not at that point. I wanted to live, but you can’t live in a world without meaning. To be Cain is, obviously, also grandiose, but children are grandiose, aren’t they. They do think they’re at the center of some story, even if it’s a bad one.”

- On Being with Krista Tippett, Gregory Orr: Shaping Grief With Language.

Polar stratospheric clouds also referred to as Nacreous Clouds

You taught your songs to the birds first, why was that? And You practiced Your love in the hearts of animals before You created man. I know the planets talk at night and tell secrets about You. A limb just moved before me, the beauty of this world is causing me to weep.

— Mirabai

Virginia Woolf’s Handwritten Suicide Note: A Painful and Poignant Farewell (1941)