recognizing the value of our time on earth
March 10, 2020: Dao Ly Son, VN, Pearl Island Hotel
What is morning to you?
In the morning when I woke,
I already saw fishermen at the market.
The night before, before I went to bed,
I peered out the window below,
at the sea to see —
distant cones of lights in the dark shores.
They were harpooning
for this morning’s sale.
What is night to you?
So much happens in a day,
how different we all are.
If we were born into a different skin and family,
then we could have been a boy at the beach watching the sun go down,
perhaps a 5 year old girl on a brick wall holding onto a basketball to wait for her friend after summer ends,
perhaps a widowed old man tending to his garden and he has a pet bird in a cage,
perhaps an old woman in bed, unable to get out, so she stares at an aquarium across the room, feeling, too, like the fish, trapped.
All in the same day, same time,
who we are not seems to be a gift.
In other words, when we are ourselves,
when we recognize the value of our time on earth,
(why does it always happen more when we are alone?)
that seems to be all that matters.
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October 13, 2023 - Cambridge, MA 02140
Currently listening to “American Daughter” as I am circling back to my time on Ly Son Island, the words “To know her is to love her,” has tucked itself in my heart.
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“To know her is to love her” means being able to understand her. I’m looking at this in the lens of myself. What is self-love?
Is it in the thought-provoking questions, philosophies, cinema, and art that inspire us of the moments that give recognition of our time on earth? Is it in the people I talk to that lean their candles towards mine? Is it the way I kindle my own flame?
What’s it got to do anything with you?
What is this all to you?