One strategy to last the winter is to shed your leaves, to cut back to the bare minimum so as to make it through the cold months. Another is to grow in such a way that you are shaped to endure, that allows you to stay green regardless of the weather.
What helps you make it through the wintery periods of your life?
We squint our eyes when the sun is too bright, or when we are trying to focus something that is not quite clear. Sometimes clarity comes with less light, a narrowed view, a chance to prune back so that there are fewer distractions.
When has it helped you to restrict your focus so that you could see more clearly?
Valentine’s Day tends to be awkward for people who aren’t in a romantic relationship—or whose relationship doesn’t hold the romance they wish it would. But there are many kinds of love one could celebrate this holiday. The love of chocolate is only one.
What kind of love do you celebrate today?
The things we discard don’t go away. Even the garbage we properly dispose of still takes up space in the landfill. Even the relationships that end cleanly hover in the back of our consciousness, shaping who we are. But the biggest problems are caused by the things we try to just abandon, as if by ignoring them we could make them disappear.
What have you abandoned that you could put away with greater care?
“We have only begun
to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
—so much is in bud.”
— Denise Levertov
What does the fullness of life look like when you imagine it?
