What I Am Reading This Summer
My bedside table is always crowded. Currently reading about quantum physics and poetry and how they might be saying the same thing in different languages. Reading is reflection and discovery and joy.
Three Books on My Summer List
- The Overstory by Richard Powers. A novel about trees and the people who love them. It changed how I look at every tree I pass. The prose is dense but worth every sentence.
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge woven together. After reading this, I cannot walk past a patch of moss without bowing slightly.
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Essential reading for anyone interested in trauma and healing and the mind-body connection.
My bedside table is always crowded because I am always hungry for the next conversation between pages.
Why Poetry Matters
This summer I am also revisiting poetry. Mary Oliver. Warsan Shire. The kind of writing that does not explain but evokes. In a world of hot takes and instant analysis, poetry is resistance. It says: slow down. Pay attention. Feel something without knowing why.
- Poetry trusts the reader to complete the circuit.
- It does not explain. It evokes.
- It is the practice of letting other minds into your own and emerging changed.