1. "You return to your knowing when you stop perceiving your skin as a barrier, and you remember that it was only ever a doorway." WOW.
2. I have had to do this with my cat as well (birds and mice). It is utterly heartbreaking...and, yes, sometimes this is what compassion looks like. ❤️
Mmm, thank you for this comment, my friend. Here's to doorways and to the heartbreaking ways that compassion plays out in a world full of both beauty and suffering. Love you so.
Oh my goodness, Kendall. Now I’m the one with flowing tears. This is absolutely gorgeous. As one who longs for places, as one who loves Denali, as one who’s lost dear friends way too early, and as one who’s known both types of compassion you describe here intimately, my heart is wider, more open for this letter.
“You never really left.” That will stay with me. That and the mycelial connection beneath our feet.
Mmmm. Thank you, my friend. I’m honored that my letter inspired you.
This means so much, Holly. Here's to making each other cry in all the best ways. I am so moved that your heart is wider after reading this- that it resonated so specifically. And again, thank you for inspiring the letter. I truly needed it right now, and you opened up that doorway. ✨
Yay! This is exactly why we writers need each other, need to be in conversation with and write to and for each other. It makes us better writers. It opens up new pathways. It makes the world a better place. ;)
I’m a sobbing mess Kendall. I thought I’d read this before dinner, something easy, and now all I want to do is go upstairs, pull a blanket over my head and read this over and over again with the attention and honor it deserves. I want to become Denali and hold all of it, feel all of it. I’m f#*king speechless. I’ve never been to Denali but today, through your gift, I felt a moment of becoming her, seeing you, feeling awe.
Oh my goodness, I've made you a blubbering mess right before dinner?? I should have issued a warning. Seriously though, thank you for this comment. I feel the full weight of YOUR attention and it means the world. I think I need to pull the covers over my head, too.
“This is how you remember that you are a part of every ecosystem you’ve forgotten you belong to. You return to your knowing when you stop perceiving your skin as a barrier, and you remember that it was only ever a doorway.”
Again and again you take us just where we need to be. Just where this species needs to be in terms of awareness, in terms not just of irrefutable homo sapien kinship but in terms of our inextricable interconnectedness and interdependence with the all ~ particularly of this “more than human world.”
As others have remarked, yours is the poetic voice, that tender furious heart-rending music rife with both science and mysticism, with keen eye and open heart that can pry open ours ~ that can make us see. And feel. It us companion, I believe to works like James Bridle’s “Ways of Being,” that entreat us to become aware NOW at peril of losing all.
Thank you for this song, little Methow. Lyrical and percussive and timeless.
Ahhhh, this, exactly this. "...in terms not just of irrefutable homo sapien kinship but in terms of our inextricable interconnectedness and interdependence with the all...." Thank you for grasping this beautiful truth, my friend. I so appreciate that you comment on the science intertwined with the mysticism here. For so long I didn't know how to marry the two, and I think I am finding my voice. You're such a big part of that.❤
Yep, tears. I feel your grief, K, and I too have loved so many places that have changed enough that I can’t return to them. I tend to call places Mama - Mama Kauai, Mama Orcas, Mama Alaska - because they’ve held me in that way, and taught me.
I think “mama” is the best descriptor for places, Michelle. I found that Denali had to speak to me in an maternal voice, it felt so natural. Thanks so much for the share.
I'm crying over here, Kendall! Wow. I don't know why I have never read you but that's about to change thanks to Rona Maynard for sharing your beautiful heart-wrenching story and soul. xo
Yes! Thank you to Rona for the share this morning and thank you to you for this lovely comment. I am honored these words made you cry. I've been doing an awful lot of that lately myself. I look forward to checking out your Substack as well!
I would probably have never read this. But someone I admire deeply reposted a quote from it that just happened to speak to something my husband and I were discussing just this weekend, so I had to dive in.
I am taken aback by the beauty of this, the way I was transported to my own childhood which was fraught with danger, the way it speaks to where I am now, loving and caring so deeply and not knowing if it’s coming back to you, being held by a place (I always knew that I didn’t die in them NYC streets cuz them streets had a shield around me), being cherished and thought of and needed. This is a remarkable take on the “aliveness” of things and places we don’t usually see as that — especially being raised in the city, the hood.
I am in tears, I am in awe, I am overwhelmed. So beautifully done. I am eager to spend more time with your words. This is truly a gift — thank you 💙
This comment means so much to me, QuYahni. I love that you were drawn here by a conversation and a trusted person who pulled out a quote. I love that you were transported back to your fraught childhood, and that you resonated with feeling held by a place, even and especially a place with such a different texture than Denali. I always hope that pieces like this will become universally felt, so truly, thank you.
"It is a very sacred thing to receive the suffering of another without turning away." Thank you for putting to words what I have been feeling over the past week and a half so perfectly. Not exactly my own grief, but also NOT not my grief. It's all combined.
Beautiful piece as ever, lighting my candles for you, Denali, KC, and my angels over here. <3
Thank you for the candle lighting, and I am holding space for you as well as you receive the suffering of another right now. This world is awfully heavy sometimes, and your presence in it makes it lighter somehow.
Oh! Flashes of memories and all those emotions are just as fresh as the days they were evoked. The Soul remembers vividly and compassion, empathy, honor, and integrity remind us of what makes us One.
It is my great pleasure to meet you, Kendall, to see for a moment through your eyes, hear the whispered wisdom of those kind voices who sense you, trust you, speak with you. You, and they... bring magic close enough to taste and smell, to feel rising upward through unshod feet. Thank you.
What an utterly beautiful comment, David! It is my great pleasure to meet you as well. I look forward to sharing words with you here and over on your Substack as well. Thank you so much for being here.
Oof. I hear you on the chapters that are the hardest to write. Somehow I feel like I just bore witness to a back door you found, and that your hard chapter might find a way to get itself written soon... here for the use of 2nd/3rd person POV and crafty writing workarounds. If it helps, I wrote my hardest chapter by following a friend's advice... she said write a list of the things I *don't want to write. Which made me start writing the things. Resistance can be befriended, and that is one of my best chapters. I predict this will be one of yours.💜
Wow, Mary Beth, thank you for this insightful comment! I love your friend's advice. Sometimes we really do need that backdoor that you speak of. And I suspect you're right- the hard bits are already pressing at the seams of my subconscious, and I have faith they'll arrive here exactly when they are ready to. Honestly, knowing that readers like yourself are here to receive them with such grace makes the writing so much more meaningful. 💙
1. "You return to your knowing when you stop perceiving your skin as a barrier, and you remember that it was only ever a doorway." WOW.
2. I have had to do this with my cat as well (birds and mice). It is utterly heartbreaking...and, yes, sometimes this is what compassion looks like. ❤️
Mmm, thank you for this comment, my friend. Here's to doorways and to the heartbreaking ways that compassion plays out in a world full of both beauty and suffering. Love you so.
Oh my goodness, Kendall. Now I’m the one with flowing tears. This is absolutely gorgeous. As one who longs for places, as one who loves Denali, as one who’s lost dear friends way too early, and as one who’s known both types of compassion you describe here intimately, my heart is wider, more open for this letter.
“You never really left.” That will stay with me. That and the mycelial connection beneath our feet.
Mmmm. Thank you, my friend. I’m honored that my letter inspired you.
This means so much, Holly. Here's to making each other cry in all the best ways. I am so moved that your heart is wider after reading this- that it resonated so specifically. And again, thank you for inspiring the letter. I truly needed it right now, and you opened up that doorway. ✨
Yay! This is exactly why we writers need each other, need to be in conversation with and write to and for each other. It makes us better writers. It opens up new pathways. It makes the world a better place. ;)
I am speechless. This is so beautifully tender. It will stay in my heart. ❤
I'm so honored to have a place there, Nancy! Thank you.
What an incredible love letter. So many tears! Thank you Kendall for this outpouring of love and loss. It's so powerful.
Janine, thank you for sharing your tears! I am so moved. 🩵🩵🩵
I am bawling.
What a ride this is. Thank you for every single word. Wrapping my arms around you from far away.
Love you friend 🩵
Thank you for holding it, Mesa. For your exquisite attention, here and always. 🙏🩵
I’m a sobbing mess Kendall. I thought I’d read this before dinner, something easy, and now all I want to do is go upstairs, pull a blanket over my head and read this over and over again with the attention and honor it deserves. I want to become Denali and hold all of it, feel all of it. I’m f#*king speechless. I’ve never been to Denali but today, through your gift, I felt a moment of becoming her, seeing you, feeling awe.
Oh my goodness, I've made you a blubbering mess right before dinner?? I should have issued a warning. Seriously though, thank you for this comment. I feel the full weight of YOUR attention and it means the world. I think I need to pull the covers over my head, too.
“This is how you remember that you are a part of every ecosystem you’ve forgotten you belong to. You return to your knowing when you stop perceiving your skin as a barrier, and you remember that it was only ever a doorway.”
Again and again you take us just where we need to be. Just where this species needs to be in terms of awareness, in terms not just of irrefutable homo sapien kinship but in terms of our inextricable interconnectedness and interdependence with the all ~ particularly of this “more than human world.”
As others have remarked, yours is the poetic voice, that tender furious heart-rending music rife with both science and mysticism, with keen eye and open heart that can pry open ours ~ that can make us see. And feel. It us companion, I believe to works like James Bridle’s “Ways of Being,” that entreat us to become aware NOW at peril of losing all.
Thank you for this song, little Methow. Lyrical and percussive and timeless.
Ahhhh, this, exactly this. "...in terms not just of irrefutable homo sapien kinship but in terms of our inextricable interconnectedness and interdependence with the all...." Thank you for grasping this beautiful truth, my friend. I so appreciate that you comment on the science intertwined with the mysticism here. For so long I didn't know how to marry the two, and I think I am finding my voice. You're such a big part of that.❤
~ and your sweet powerful voice is being heard 🌟
Yep, tears. I feel your grief, K, and I too have loved so many places that have changed enough that I can’t return to them. I tend to call places Mama - Mama Kauai, Mama Orcas, Mama Alaska - because they’ve held me in that way, and taught me.
I think “mama” is the best descriptor for places, Michelle. I found that Denali had to speak to me in an maternal voice, it felt so natural. Thanks so much for the share.
I'm crying over here, Kendall! Wow. I don't know why I have never read you but that's about to change thanks to Rona Maynard for sharing your beautiful heart-wrenching story and soul. xo
Yes! Thank you to Rona for the share this morning and thank you to you for this lovely comment. I am honored these words made you cry. I've been doing an awful lot of that lately myself. I look forward to checking out your Substack as well!
I would probably have never read this. But someone I admire deeply reposted a quote from it that just happened to speak to something my husband and I were discussing just this weekend, so I had to dive in.
I am taken aback by the beauty of this, the way I was transported to my own childhood which was fraught with danger, the way it speaks to where I am now, loving and caring so deeply and not knowing if it’s coming back to you, being held by a place (I always knew that I didn’t die in them NYC streets cuz them streets had a shield around me), being cherished and thought of and needed. This is a remarkable take on the “aliveness” of things and places we don’t usually see as that — especially being raised in the city, the hood.
I am in tears, I am in awe, I am overwhelmed. So beautifully done. I am eager to spend more time with your words. This is truly a gift — thank you 💙
This comment means so much to me, QuYahni. I love that you were drawn here by a conversation and a trusted person who pulled out a quote. I love that you were transported back to your fraught childhood, and that you resonated with feeling held by a place, even and especially a place with such a different texture than Denali. I always hope that pieces like this will become universally felt, so truly, thank you.
Kendall, hi <3
"It is a very sacred thing to receive the suffering of another without turning away." Thank you for putting to words what I have been feeling over the past week and a half so perfectly. Not exactly my own grief, but also NOT not my grief. It's all combined.
Beautiful piece as ever, lighting my candles for you, Denali, KC, and my angels over here. <3
Thank you for the candle lighting, and I am holding space for you as well as you receive the suffering of another right now. This world is awfully heavy sometimes, and your presence in it makes it lighter somehow.
🥹💓🤍✨🫂
I have no words for how much I love this, Kendall. Truly, it's phenomenonal. Thank you for bringing this to the world 🤍
Thank you for these words, even if you feel you don't have them. I appreciate you being here so much! 🩵
Oh! Flashes of memories and all those emotions are just as fresh as the days they were evoked. The Soul remembers vividly and compassion, empathy, honor, and integrity remind us of what makes us One.
Thank you.
Mmmm, YES to all of this, Trish. Thank you for such a thoughtful comment, and for joining me here.
💕
It is my great pleasure to meet you, Kendall, to see for a moment through your eyes, hear the whispered wisdom of those kind voices who sense you, trust you, speak with you. You, and they... bring magic close enough to taste and smell, to feel rising upward through unshod feet. Thank you.
What an utterly beautiful comment, David! It is my great pleasure to meet you as well. I look forward to sharing words with you here and over on your Substack as well. Thank you so much for being here.
Oof. I hear you on the chapters that are the hardest to write. Somehow I feel like I just bore witness to a back door you found, and that your hard chapter might find a way to get itself written soon... here for the use of 2nd/3rd person POV and crafty writing workarounds. If it helps, I wrote my hardest chapter by following a friend's advice... she said write a list of the things I *don't want to write. Which made me start writing the things. Resistance can be befriended, and that is one of my best chapters. I predict this will be one of yours.💜
Wow, Mary Beth, thank you for this insightful comment! I love your friend's advice. Sometimes we really do need that backdoor that you speak of. And I suspect you're right- the hard bits are already pressing at the seams of my subconscious, and I have faith they'll arrive here exactly when they are ready to. Honestly, knowing that readers like yourself are here to receive them with such grace makes the writing so much more meaningful. 💙
This whole piece is ... Wow.
Thank you, Nathan. I just discovered you through Kimberly Warner and am excited to dig in! This is why I love it here.
🙏🤗
I know, right? It’s such a great community space.