Hi! I found you on CollabStack. I admire how your writing seems grounded in place. That's something that's mostly absent from my own writing but that I have admired in some of my favorite novels and TV shows.
At the end of your piece, you ask what lines are moored in our minds. The one that leapt out at me was this one from Cormac McCarthy's dismal apocalyptic novel THE ROAD: “If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.” It's a phrase that gets at the central relationship of the novel but that stuck with me so much that I actually used it when I announced that we were pregnant with one of our sons.
“With time, nature’s wilding fills a path with debris, and in a rejuvenating moment, nature flushes with a seismic torrented burst that overfills banks, adds nutrient sediment in lowlands, debrides crevices to confirm, once again, a slow, shallow pathway.” Your words flow and swell like the water of which you write, speeding up and slowing down, depositing ideas along the banks of the imagination.
I always think of you in the desert. Endless views, not barren at all. One of my favorite places is Death Valley and visiting the hidden (ie not Badwater) springs and little creeks. Cannot wait for the large project to be finished!! The Bosque is an amazing place!
Yes, these desert oases pull me harder than the myriad streams and rivers of my New England childhood did. Their very existence so much more rare and fragile, so much easier to appreciate.
Yes, I love the east coast, its expanse of green and diversity of life and how easy it is to just sit and literally watch a fern unfurl but my heart is in the west.
Hi! I found you on CollabStack. I admire how your writing seems grounded in place. That's something that's mostly absent from my own writing but that I have admired in some of my favorite novels and TV shows.
At the end of your piece, you ask what lines are moored in our minds. The one that leapt out at me was this one from Cormac McCarthy's dismal apocalyptic novel THE ROAD: “If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.” It's a phrase that gets at the central relationship of the novel but that stuck with me so much that I actually used it when I announced that we were pregnant with one of our sons.
I actually wrote about it here: https://the17pointscale.substack.com/p/if-god-never-spoke.
I was caught by the need to tell people not to say water never dies? Do people really think that?
Yes, without a doubt, yes.
Wow! I can’t even fathom it. Truly astounding to me. Anyway, loved this piece and the language you use to describe the landscape. Lovely!
It would have been nice to have you at my back during some very tense conversations.
I would have loved to have been there!!
Happy with the voting result! Sounds like a hard writing slog ahead for you. That's why we pay you the big bucks, Stacy! (/s)
Glad you're contemplating/writing about water. Its absence on a heating planet will kill more beings faster than anything else.
Those words that keep playing in my head tell me I'm ruminating on a new useful insight. They vanish once I "get" it.
Those big bucks!! Water, so much to say about water. Have you read Macfarlane's new book?
“With time, nature’s wilding fills a path with debris, and in a rejuvenating moment, nature flushes with a seismic torrented burst that overfills banks, adds nutrient sediment in lowlands, debrides crevices to confirm, once again, a slow, shallow pathway.” Your words flow and swell like the water of which you write, speeding up and slowing down, depositing ideas along the banks of the imagination.
A heartfelt thank you this morning, Julie. I needed that comment.
❤️
I always think of you in the desert. Endless views, not barren at all. One of my favorite places is Death Valley and visiting the hidden (ie not Badwater) springs and little creeks. Cannot wait for the large project to be finished!! The Bosque is an amazing place!
There is something spiritual about a Bosque. Sit still long enough and elder spirits return to fill their water vessels.
Yes, these desert oases pull me harder than the myriad streams and rivers of my New England childhood did. Their very existence so much more rare and fragile, so much easier to appreciate.
Yes, I love the east coast, its expanse of green and diversity of life and how easy it is to just sit and literally watch a fern unfurl but my heart is in the west.