"While watching a heart rate monitor recently it occurred to me that In many ways life is like one massive singular heart beat—a sudden skyward propulsion of energy and vitality, naturally followed by it’s equal and opposite return—all held on either side by periods of rest, in the before and the after." I found this part breath-taking, Chloe. Such a beautiful image.
It is a magic trick you perform every single time you dispatch one of these posts. I don’t know how you do it, delving so deeply into the great mystery and surfacing with these beautiful insights each time. I never considered the liminal state of an egg but it really is a perfect physical manifestation of something so abstract. Please wish David a happy birthday for me and thank you this.
Eggs are a trip! Everything's a trip if you look at it long enough, but eggs..?! 🤯 Thank you so much for being willing to experience the trip with me. And David says thank you, too.
I so agree. There's a certain excitement when I click through because I know that within about one paragraph I will be whisked away into a different, calmer state of mind.
So full of beauty--what more is life than a poem, what more is a poem than love of life. Those birds, the now--the ascendance of breath and a hearbeat matched by the pause of return. So loved reading this--thank you for writing and sharing such a gorgeous, tender love for life in your work. 💜
Oh my God, that picture of the freshly hatched starlings is breathtaking. I often find solace in this notion of transformation, that I have been and well once again, be apart the soil in the rain that nurtures all that is. And ah yes! to join what reconfigures as a bird’s wing—bliss! Thank you as always, Chloe, for giving me something beautiful to contemplate of a Sunday.
They're heaven, aren't they. And yes, I find it a great relief to know that I'll eventually become even more part of it all, sooner or later. Thank you so much for being here, dear Holly.
“I sometimes feel as though I am both in and yet not in the world, that I too must fight to break into the world from inside of it—my shell made up of everything that I refuse to love.” So beautiful and true as a human condition that doesn’t seem to apply to any other species in this world. They are all effortlessly part of the vast flow of life, which we long for, too…maybe breaking through the shell is that process of becoming larger, truer expressions of life ourselves. xo
I nod, I smile with admiration at your unwavering perspective on the world ("How better to say “I love you” than with wings."), I laugh out loud ("(please, please a Bird)"), I nod along at each and every word, reminding myself that living organisms occupy a beautiful and brief cycle of lowered entropy (<I like to pretend that I have a grasp on principles of thermodynamics...)
Happy birthday David, you wonderful human being! Hope you're doing well.
Thanks so much, Nathan. David and I like to pretend that we have a grasp on thermodynamics, too! And many other things! Glad to know we're in good company :)
Gorgeous writing. The first thing I read this morning, and I think I might put down my phone and go worship in the Church of Nature, and listen to the choir of the heart we share. Thank you so much.
So moving that it took me to times I recall of the death of loved ones--and I broke through the moments of realization that you describe with such eloquence, particularly with the death of my sister whose heart rate monitor I did watch and wrote about in a fictional short story—with that element the only total truth--though the emotional truth resided all through the telling, and then, when my son died and I wasn't present at the moment but instead, heart broke, on the phone shortly before, I wrote this that I have shared elsewhere: "I did not know that love may speak in waves of silence." Chloe your writing moves me like none other.
Those baby birds are singing the same joy you ignite in the hearts of your readers—a choir of awe for life and how the cracked shell of your own loving makes us all want to hear our unified heartbeat with more reverence and more grace. 🙏
"... I began to see her as a living poem, penned by existence as a love letter to itself. How better to say “I love you” than with wings." "...parts of the current me will eventually become part of the earth, or a tree, or, God willing, a Bird." You write such poetry, Chloe. I am shaken -- as from a stupor, every time I read your work. Thanks for the beauty you add to our lives.
New subscriber here! What a wonderful essay. So many memorable lines! Past beings have transformed and are gone, future beings have not yet formed and arrived, current beings do not linger for even a moment. Who then are we reading this splendid morning? Light emerging from light?
"While watching a heart rate monitor recently it occurred to me that In many ways life is like one massive singular heart beat—a sudden skyward propulsion of energy and vitality, naturally followed by it’s equal and opposite return—all held on either side by periods of rest, in the before and the after." I found this part breath-taking, Chloe. Such a beautiful image.
Thank you, Jeffrey. So glad it landed.
Exactly the part that stopped me still. Gorgeous and profound.
It is a magic trick you perform every single time you dispatch one of these posts. I don’t know how you do it, delving so deeply into the great mystery and surfacing with these beautiful insights each time. I never considered the liminal state of an egg but it really is a perfect physical manifestation of something so abstract. Please wish David a happy birthday for me and thank you this.
Eggs are a trip! Everything's a trip if you look at it long enough, but eggs..?! 🤯 Thank you so much for being willing to experience the trip with me. And David says thank you, too.
I so agree. There's a certain excitement when I click through because I know that within about one paragraph I will be whisked away into a different, calmer state of mind.
Someday, on fairy wings.
And may that day be many years from now.
There is no doubt that you, Chloe, will be the most beautiful bird, to ever color the sky.
“How better to say “I love you” than with wings.”
Indeed.🪽♥️
Putting a little prayer out there that the stars align and we get to occupy the same bird 🤞🪽
💚
So full of beauty--what more is life than a poem, what more is a poem than love of life. Those birds, the now--the ascendance of breath and a hearbeat matched by the pause of return. So loved reading this--thank you for writing and sharing such a gorgeous, tender love for life in your work. 💜
Freya, your comment is so full of beauty, thank you! 💜
Oh my God, that picture of the freshly hatched starlings is breathtaking. I often find solace in this notion of transformation, that I have been and well once again, be apart the soil in the rain that nurtures all that is. And ah yes! to join what reconfigures as a bird’s wing—bliss! Thank you as always, Chloe, for giving me something beautiful to contemplate of a Sunday.
They're heaven, aren't they. And yes, I find it a great relief to know that I'll eventually become even more part of it all, sooner or later. Thank you so much for being here, dear Holly.
Thank you, Chloe. This is perfectly timed, especially the final paragraph about mortality being a precious gift. What a beautiful reminder. 💚
Thank you, Julie. And yes, I truly wouldn't have it any other way...💜
“I sometimes feel as though I am both in and yet not in the world, that I too must fight to break into the world from inside of it—my shell made up of everything that I refuse to love.” So beautiful and true as a human condition that doesn’t seem to apply to any other species in this world. They are all effortlessly part of the vast flow of life, which we long for, too…maybe breaking through the shell is that process of becoming larger, truer expressions of life ourselves. xo
I think it might be exactly that, Carmine. Here's to many a shell cracking, at just the right time x
Always, always a soul-nourishing read, Chloe.
I nod, I smile with admiration at your unwavering perspective on the world ("How better to say “I love you” than with wings."), I laugh out loud ("(please, please a Bird)"), I nod along at each and every word, reminding myself that living organisms occupy a beautiful and brief cycle of lowered entropy (<I like to pretend that I have a grasp on principles of thermodynamics...)
Happy birthday David, you wonderful human being! Hope you're doing well.
Thanks so much, Nathan. David and I like to pretend that we have a grasp on thermodynamics, too! And many other things! Glad to know we're in good company :)
I was a baby bird carer for some years. Those gaping little dinosaur mouths—irresistible! ❤️
They really are :)
Gorgeous writing. The first thing I read this morning, and I think I might put down my phone and go worship in the Church of Nature, and listen to the choir of the heart we share. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mary! I hope you enjoyed a beautiful sermon out there this morning 🌿
I did. It didn’t feel preachy at all.
Yes, putting down the phone, Mary. It begins there.
So moving that it took me to times I recall of the death of loved ones--and I broke through the moments of realization that you describe with such eloquence, particularly with the death of my sister whose heart rate monitor I did watch and wrote about in a fictional short story—with that element the only total truth--though the emotional truth resided all through the telling, and then, when my son died and I wasn't present at the moment but instead, heart broke, on the phone shortly before, I wrote this that I have shared elsewhere: "I did not know that love may speak in waves of silence." Chloe your writing moves me like none other.
Mary, goodness, thank you for sharing that extraordinary line. I’m very touched to know that this piece reached you in the way that it did. ❤️
Those baby birds are singing the same joy you ignite in the hearts of your readers—a choir of awe for life and how the cracked shell of your own loving makes us all want to hear our unified heartbeat with more reverence and more grace. 🙏
You are a poet, and a poem ♥️
"... I began to see her as a living poem, penned by existence as a love letter to itself. How better to say “I love you” than with wings." "...parts of the current me will eventually become part of the earth, or a tree, or, God willing, a Bird." You write such poetry, Chloe. I am shaken -- as from a stupor, every time I read your work. Thanks for the beauty you add to our lives.
Thank you so much, Sharon. That's all I hope for, in writing these.
New subscriber here! What a wonderful essay. So many memorable lines! Past beings have transformed and are gone, future beings have not yet formed and arrived, current beings do not linger for even a moment. Who then are we reading this splendid morning? Light emerging from light?
Michael, hello, welcome! So glad to have you here. And, light emerging from light...I think you might be onto something there ;)
You are a very excellent writer Chloe and your insights are profound. Take good care of yourself.
This light emerging out of light, going out to light, returning from light. Eclipse is impossible. In lumine luceam.
Every sentiment throughout this essay is tear inducing and inspiring. Thank you for this offering and for sharing your words with the world 🤍
Autumn, thank you so much for reading them 💜
Beauty