Everything Is Held Together With

Everything Is Held Together With Stories. That Is All That Is Holding Us Together, Stories And Compassion.

We Keep Each Other Alive With Our Stories. We Need To Share Them, As Much As We Need To Share Food. We Also Require For Our Health The Presence Of Good Companions. One Of The Most Extraordinary Things About The Land Is That It Knows This—and It Compels Language From Some Of Us So That As A Community We May Converse About This Or That Place, And Speak Of The Need.

I Lay There Knowing Something Eerie Ties Us To The World Of Animals. Sometimes The Animals Pull You Backward Into It. You Share Hunger And Fear With Them Like Salt In Blood.

The Land Urges Us To Come Around To An Understanding Of Ourselves.

If There Is A Stage At Which An Individual Life Becomes Truly Adult, It Must Be When One Grasps The Irony In Its Unfolding And Accepts Responsibility For A Life Lived In The Midst Of Such Paradox.