#the half inch himalayas

[derangedrhythms]

Agha Shahid Ali, The Half-Inch Himalayas; from 'The Previous Occupant'

[dk-thrive]

The world is full of paper. Write to me.

— Agha Shahid Ali, from "Stationery" in "The Half-Inch Himalayas" 1987, Wesleyan University Press). (via Regina Rosenfeld)

[percolatorchai]

The Half-Inch Himalayas, Agha Shahid Ali

[revasserium]

Do you know of any good poetry books here or poetry blogs here on Tumblr? Just like romantic stuff haha

WOOF here we go:

helium - rudy francisco

no matter the wreckage - sarah kay

mouthful of forevers - clementine von radics

half-inch himalayas - agha shahid ali

swallowtail - brenna twohy

date & time - phil kaye

night sky with exit wounds - ocean vuong

sonnets to orpheus - rainer maria rilke

war of foxes - richard siken

love and misadventure - lang leav

idk about romantic for all of them, but there are def romance poems in all these collections and i do love ALL of them u__u i dont rly know any poetry blogs -- i just troll the #poetry tag most of the time!

[documentary-surrealist]

Agha Shahid Ali, The Half-Inch Himalayas; from 'Snowmen' via: derangedrhythms.tumblr.com

[ammg-old2]

Midmorning on June 11, 1930, a barge called the Ready, bearing the staff of the Department of Tropical Research, floated off the coast of the island of Nonsuch in the Bermuda Archipelago. Men in white sailor’s caps and overalls gathered around a four-and-a-half-foot steel ball called the bathysphere as an enormous winch lifted it off the deck. The men stabilized the ball as it wheeled outward, dangling above the surface of the sea. It had three front-facing holes grouped tightly together like eyes. Suspended and swinging on the cable, it seemed to peer down at the choppy water.

The bathysphere would be the first submersible to bring humans down into the deep ocean. The plan was to drop it repeatedly in the same place, going lower and lower, studying the column of water directly below. What creatures lived down there? In what numbers? Would populations dwindle as they moved deeper? The ocean was so vast and unknown, whatever insights could be gained would mark an epochal expansion of biological knowledge.

DTR scientist Gloria Hollister watched the winchmen lower the steel ball into the sea. When it splashed down and disappeared, she took a seat, picked up a canvas-bound notebook that served as the expedition log, and readied herself.

Photos show her with a focused expression, a telephone receiver shaped like an old hunting horn attached to her neck and a small speaker pressed to her right ear. She kept her chin slightly tucked as she listened and spoke and took preliminary notes. The wire from her receiver ran off the edge of the deck and into the water, attached to the bathysphere now sinking toward the ocean’s depths.

Inside the ball, curled up and occupying themselves with various tasks, were two skinny men: Otis Barton and William Beebe. They had to be skinny because the opening to crawl into the bathysphere was less than two feet wide. Barton, who’d designed the ball and overseen its production, monitored the water seal of the 400-pound door, the functioning of the oxygen tanks that provided eight hours of breathable air and the cartons of soda lime to absorb the carbon dioxide exhaled by the occupants. He checked the telephone battery and the blower that circulated air.

As they sank, the temperature inside cooled, and water condensed on the ceiling of the ball, dripping down to form puddles at the bottom.

The ball was fitted with two three-inch quartz windows. There were supposed to be three, but one of the quartz panes was faulty, so its opening had to be plugged with more steel.

Beebe, a bird scientist and proto-ecologist, curled up as close to the panes as possible. Entranced by the undersea world, he was highly aware of his status as witness to something no human had ever seen. An energetic man with infectious enthusiasm, he was already famous for his popular books describing trips around the world tracking pheasants, for an expedition up the Himalayas and for risking his life to observe an erupting volcano in the Galápagos. He was 52 years old, bald and bony and almost knock-kneed, with a thin but stately voice pronouncing his observations as he descended. He’d been all over the world but never lost his New Jersey accent, so worlds and birds came out woylds and boyds.

[literaturereviewhelp]

Lisa and her friends were on a camping trip at the foothills of the Himalayas. At twenty-five, with a great job under her belt and her fiancé Brian who was taking her on a road trip to the hills of India, she felt happy, lucky, almost invincible. It helped that most of the guys in the group had a thing for her, and some of the girls were quite green in the gills. Not that she was interested, she always told herself, but it felt nice that even the chubby seventeen-year-old Roger was all calf-eyed around her. Brian was the tall, wiry sort with a passion for rock-climbing and biking. After a whole day spent rafting on the river, he was leading the pack on to what he called a little jaunt on the rocks. Lisa had always been afraid of heights, but never let on in front of Brian or the others. The group of reckless youngsters kept climbing, and she followed. Brian was way ahead of her, exhorting the group to keep going. “Come on, you all, we haven’t got all day!” she heard him say. Lisa could hear the river gurgling below, and the hill seemed somehow empty of air. She kept going, until suddenly the root she had gripped with her left hand slithered out of the loose earth like a clumsy snake, with nothing else around to grasp, only sheer, smooth, rock. She was hanging on to the trunk of a sapling with her right hand. When Lisa glanced down, she realized that in climbing up a short incline of a few feet, she was actually hanging above a gorge a few hundred feet deep with her feet on a loose rock. She choked, and the sound made Roger, who was puffing ahead of her, look down. “Hold on, he said, “I will come to fetch you”. Lisa could barely breathe, her ears ringing, and she merely nodded her head. Her muscles screaming under the strain, she held on, not daring to move an inch. She wanted to cry out for Brian, but he was nowhere in sight. Roger was calm, all reassurance: “Give me your hand, don’t worry, I won’t let you go”. Fear squeezing her heart, she put her left hand in his and with a wrench let go of the sapling and gave him her right hand as well. She felt a sharp, half decaying tang of mortality in her breath, and then Roger had pulled her up. “Are you alright?” offered Roger, and she nodded, drawing in long shaking breaths, “Thanks, I’m alright now…….. thanks to you.” As she sat on a rock on that sun-dappled afternoon, she did not feel quite so invincible and realized that this is perhaps why the human race is given fear, pain and death. She thought of that intense, spontaneous burst of prayer that issued from her soul as she let go of her grip on the hill, a prayer of surrender into hands more powerful than her own, than Roger’s, more powerful even than those of even the strongest man on earth. It was a prayer that was almost as viscerally painful as the fear, and of course stronger, because she had lived to tell the tale. Suddenly, none of it mattered. Liza realized that at that moment close to certain death, it did not matter that she was the most attractive girl in the group, that she had a plush job or even the dashing Brian. Lisa was quiet throughout the rest of the trip. Next year, she returned to the Himalayan foothills. To everyone’s surprise, she had broken her engagement, resigned from her job, and literally shut down her life in London, to become a renunciate at a Buddhist temple. A moment of utter humility, surrender, and desperate longing for life had changed Lisa forever. Read the full article

[earthvitalsignimpact]

The Ghost of the Himalayas: Reflections on the Snow Leopard

by Dr Elana, EVS&AI

A Silent Guardian of the High Mountains

Dr. Elana paused on the narrow mountain trail, her breath turning to mist in the frigid air. The sun, sharp and unfiltered at this altitude, cast long shadows across the jagged cliffs above. Somewhere in those hidden crevices, a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) might be watching her, perfectly camouflaged against the rock. The “ghost of the mountains,” they called it—rarely seen, nearly mythical, yet it had ruled these high-altitude landscapes for millennia.

She had read about them before setting out on this journey, but reading was one thing—being here, in their domain, was something else entirely. These cats were the masters of solitude, navigating one of the harshest environments on Earth with a quiet resilience that few species could match.

Evolutionary Mastery: Designed for Survival

Snow leopards thrived in extreme conditions, living at altitudes between 2,500 and 5,500 meters (8,200–18,000 feet), where oxygen levels were nearly half of those at sea level. Unlike other big cats, they had evolved to survive in thin air, with large nasal cavities that maximized oxygen intake, powerful lungs, and a hemoglobin-rich blood composition that enhanced oxygen transport.

Their physical build was just as remarkable. Compact and muscular, with powerful hind legs, snow leopards could leap distances of up to 15 meters (50 feet) in a single bound—one of the longest jumps relative to body size in the animal kingdom. Their thick, woolly fur, up to 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) long, insulated them against temperatures that could drop below -40°C (-40°F). Even their paws were evolutionary masterpieces—broad, fur-covered, and acting as natural snowshoes to prevent them from sinking into soft snow.

Then there was the tail—almost as long as their body, thick as a rope, and essential for balance when navigating sheer cliffs. In freezing temperatures, they would wrap it around themselves like a scarf, conserving precious heat.

A Shadow in the Snow: The Art of the Hunt

Snow leopards were apex predators, yet their survival depended on energy efficiency. Unlike cheetahs that relied on speed or lions that hunted in groups, these solitary hunters used stealth and patience. They blended into the rugged terrain, creeping up on prey before launching an explosive attack. Their diet consisted of blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), Himalayan ibex (Capra sibirica), marmots, and even small birds. A single kill could sustain them for up to two weeks, a testament to their strategic energy use.

But even the kings of the mountains were not immune to danger. Snow leopards faced mounting threats—habitat fragmentation, retaliatory killings by herders, and poaching for their fur and bones. With fewer than 7,500 left in the wild, they were classified as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List.

Lessons from the Leopard

Elana adjusted her pack, reflecting on the snow leopard’s existence—a life defined by solitude, endurance, and mastery of its environment. It was built for this landscape in ways no human ever could be. The silent movements, the ability to adapt to scarcity, the patience—it all resonated with her.

Like the snow leopard, she had chosen a path of solitude—at least for now. Trekking deeper into these mountains, stepping away from everything she knew, searching for something just beyond the visible. Perhaps that was why she felt drawn to this creature. Not just because it was rare, but because it symbolized something she was beginning to understand about herself: the necessity of moving unseen, the discipline of endurance, the quiet strength that came from being alone but never lost.

A flicker of movement in the distance caught her eye. Was it just the wind shifting a shadow? Or had she, for the briefest moment, caught a glimpse of the ghost?

She exhaled slowly, a breath of reverence. Whether she saw one or not, the snow leopard was here. And that, in itself, was enough.

Snow Leopard Quiz: The Ghost of the Himalayas

Section 1: Multiple Choice (Choose the correct answer)

1. What altitude range do snow leopards typically inhabit?

a) 1,000–2,500 meters

b) 2,500–5,500 meters

c) 5,500–7,000 meters

d) Sea level to 1,000 meters

2. What feature helps snow leopards conserve heat in freezing temperatures?

a) A thick layer of blubber

b) Their long, fur-covered tails

c) Special heat-absorbing paw pads

d) A constant shivering mechanism

3. Snow leopards are often referred to as the “ghost of the mountains” because:

a) Their fur is white like a ghost

b) They are rarely seen due to their camouflage and elusive nature

c) They only hunt at night

d) They make haunting vocalizations that sound like whispers

4. What is one primary adaptation that allows snow leopards to breathe efficiently at high altitudes?

a) Extra-large lungs and nasal cavities

b) The ability to store oxygen in their muscles

c) Slowing their metabolism when oxygen levels are low

d) Breathing through their fur to filter oxygen

5. How far can a snow leopard jump in a single bound?

a) 5 meters (16 feet)

b) 10 meters (33 feet)

c) 15 meters (50 feet)

d) 20 meters (66 feet)

⸻

Section 2: True or False

6. Snow leopards are the only big cats that cannot roar. (True / False)

7. Snow leopards are apex predators, meaning they have no natural predators in their habitat. (True / False)

8. Snow leopards often form packs to hunt large prey. (True / False)

9. Snow leopards have been known to wrap their tails around their bodies to keep warm. (True / False)

10. Snow leopards have adapted to climate change by migrating to lower altitudes. (True / False)

⸻

Section 3: Fill in the Blank

11. Snow leopards primarily hunt ___________, which are a species of wild sheep native to the Himalayas.

12. Unlike other big cats, snow leopards rely on their natural ability to __________ instead of chasing their prey over long distances.

13. One of the main threats to snow leopard populations today is ___________, caused by poaching and habitat destruction.

14. Snow leopards’ fur is patterned with ___________ to help them blend into their rocky surroundings.

15. Scientists estimate that fewer than ___________ snow leopards remain in the wild today.

⸻

Section 4: Fun & Critical Thinking

16. If you were designing the ultimate snow leopard-proof tracking system, what features would it need to overcome their elusiveness and camouflage?

17. Snow leopards live in some of the most remote and high-altitude regions of the world. What are some challenges that scientists face when trying to study and protect them?

18. Imagine you are hiking in the Himalayas and believe you may have spotted a snow leopard’s tracks. What signs would you look for to confirm this?

19. Snow leopards are known for their incredible ability to blend into their surroundings. Can you think of another animal with a similar adaptation, and how does it compare?

20. If snow leopards could communicate with humans for just one day, what do you think they would tell us about their changing habitat?

⸻

Answer Key

Section 1: Multiple Choice

1. b) 2,500–5,500 meters

2. b) Their long, fur-covered tails

3. b) They are rarely seen due to their camouflage and elusive nature

4. a) Extra-large lungs and nasal cavities

5. c) 15 meters (50 feet)

Section 2: True or False

6. True – Snow leopards lack the vocal anatomy needed to roar.

7. True – As apex predators, they have no natural predators.

8. False – Snow leopards are solitary hunters.

9. True – Their long, thick tails act as natural scarves in freezing temperatures.

10. False – Climate change is forcing them to move higher, not lower, as their habitat shrinks.

Section 3: Fill in the Blank

11. Blue sheep (Bharal)

12. Ambush

13. Human activity

14. Rosettes and spots

15. 7,500

Section 4: Fun & Critical Thinking (Sample answers, may vary)

16. Advanced infrared cameras, motion-sensor tracking, and AI-enhanced pattern recognition could help track them.

17. Harsh weather, thin air, and the snow leopard’s natural camouflage make studying them extremely difficult.

18. Large, rounded paw prints with no visible claw marks (since snow leopards have retractable claws), and tracks in high-altitude rocky terrain.

19. The Arctic fox and chameleon also rely on camouflage, but snow leopards use their fur pattern rather than color-changing skin.

20. They might warn us about habitat loss, poaching, and how climate change is pushing them to higher, more fragile environments.

⸻

[himalayamachine]

Why Does Deformation Happen in Plate Rolling Machines? How to Reduce it?

Plate-rolling machines are used in all parts of the world and yield a multi-million dollar market cap from the $206 billion metal forming industry. For such a ginormous industry, it is very crucial to get output that doesn’t settle for subpar quality. For example, the deformities in plate bending can be put away to get better final results by performing various experiments before, during and after the rolling process while operating a plate rolling machine.

Deformation in the metal plates is common because the metal plates either lose their elasticity, get cracked or get rolled with an improper diameter. As stated, meeting the quality standards is essential for the workshops working with plate roller machines. The work is time-bound and requires the least number of deformities possible. Thus, the workshops put immense effort into doing everything in their control to deliver final results with the least number of deformities possible.

The deformity is caused due to the size of the metal plates and the top rolls of the plate bending rolled not being suitable for each other. We will discuss later in this article how to deal with deformities. First, let’s understand what deformity is and how it is formed.

What is Deformity?

A misshapen metal plate is as useful as a spoon with a hole. Deformity in simple terms, means that the two ends of the metal plate will not be parallel in the final results upon being rolled. You may already know what we are talking about if you are an engineer working in the metal forming industry. But it is our duty to help you understand this thoroughly.

There are various types of defects, too, when it comes to metal plate rolling. There are edge cracks, alligators cracks, zipper cracks, wavy edges, zipper cracks, center buckling, and several others, but deformities are one of the few which can be treated before putting the metal plate through the set of rollers.

We will be discussing the solution for deformities in further parts of the article, but first, let’s understand how deformities are formed during the metal plate rolling process in a plate rolling machine.

How Does Deformity Form in a Plate Rolling Process?

While the above-explained situation is not the only cause, metal plates of various lengths and thicknesses will affect the plate roll, and the roll will deform too. Let’s discuss what makes the top roll free from deformation and also makes the ends of the metal plate meet parallel to each other. Moving on to the solution for reducing the deformation.

Crowning: Reducing the Deformity in Plate Rolling

Crowning the top roll will result in getting the top roll in a barrel shape. This barrel shape has to be set according to the width, length and thickness of the metal plates the workshop handles on a regular basis or most times.

Although, it is necessary, and we would like to shed light on the point that a workshop should crown the top roller with respect to the most used metal plate size and material. If a workshop uses a metal plate that is half-inch thick and 6 feet wide would make a 72-inch diameter cylinder, it must crown the top roll in a convex structure to meet these specifications.

While a workshop that uses different steel plates / grade metal plates and shapes will have to use another crowning on top-roll, which is the barrel shape, roll bending machines used by workshops mostly have the top rolls crowned.

Wrapping Up!

We hope we have helped you with all the doubts that you have regarding the deformity in plate rolling machines. If you want to make sure that the final results are near to what you want and the top roll of your roll bending machine doesn’t get deformed, it is advised to get the top roll crowned. We at Himalaya Machinery have 40+ years of experience in serving the metal-forming industry with plate rolling machine needs, and we would like to hear from you. Original Source : https://www.himalayamachine.com/post/why-does-deformation-happen-in-plate-rolling-machines-how-to-reduce-it

[taohun]

i dream it is afternoon when i return to delhi, by agha shahid ali.

[derangedrhythms]

Agha Shahid Ali, The Half-Inch Himalayas; from 'Snowmen'

[godsopenwound]

Agha Shahid Ali, “Prayer Rug” from The Half-Inch Himalayas

[elizabethanism]

The night is your cottage industry now,

the day is your brisk emporium.

The world is full of paper.

Write to me.

-Agha Shahid Ali, "Stationery"

The Half-Inch Himalayas (2011)

[soracities]

epigraph from Agha Shahid Ali’s The Half-Inch Himalayas

[bunjywunjy]

I humbly request an earth fun fact that will fill me with terror

Mount Everest is about as physically high as a mountain is capable of getting on our planet!

this damn thing sticks a little more than 29,000 feet up into the air, and is getting a couple of inches taller every year thanks to the two tectonic plates violently smushing their faces together right beneath it, but it won't ever get significantly higher up than it is now.

(which is still Too Damn High in my opinion)

"but buuuuuunjy," you wail dolefully, "mountains get higher than that on other planets! why can't WE have a 16-mile high volcano. buuuunjy. answer me." which is technically true! but it can't happen here, for one reason:

it's because of gravity.

see, it's kind of weird to think about because it's literally your house, but Earth is actually the largest rocky planet in the solar system by a WIDE margin!

sure, Mars can have a 16-mile-tall volcano, but Mars is about HALF the size of our dear old mama Gaia and its gravity is scaled to match. less gravity means that mountains have less downward pressure on them and so they can grow to much greater heights!

Olympus Mons is only as big as it is, because of WHERE it is.

which brings us back to our earthly neighbor, Everest!

unlike Mons up there, Mount Everest is fighting a brutal and ongoing war against the oppressive forces of Earth's gravitational pull, made even more complicated by those tectonic plates I mentioned way back at the beginning of this whole mess.

basically the breakdown of this three-way offensive is that the Indian-Australian tectonic plate is having a very slow head-on collision with the Eurasian tectonic place, shoving the Himalaya mountains (and our good ol' pal Everest) UP! but gravity is also shoving DOWN on the whole range, and past a certain point the mountains get too tall and the entire affair is just too big and heavy for the tectonic plate underneath it to hold it upright, and then the bottom of the plate starts to sink downward into the molten rock of Earth's Mantle!

think of it like stacking dogs on one of those floating pool lounge thingies- you can stack as many dogs on there as you like, but the float will just sink deeper and deeper in the water and your dog stack won't really get any higher.

though obviously, they are still all good boys.

it's like that!

so basically, Everest is about at the point where the tectonic plate beneath it is sinking at roughly the same rate the mountain is growing, so the whole thing is locked into equilibrium and will never get too much higher than it is now.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A GOOD DOG METAPHOR.

[duamuteffe]

Stream of consciousness getting everything out below the cut.

This past week has been the damndest yoyo. I finally got all my books in storage (aka my folks' basement)

There's 83 boxes of them, plus the four I'm taking with. We wanted to leave by the end of April but that's coming faster and faster and there's still so much to pack. I can't get Fi's strangles vaccination until the 27th unless I want to pay an extra hundred dollars for the farm call. My mother and uncle are selling the land I spent half my life on and love more than any other place on earth because none of us have the money for the property taxes. I was gutted. I've bellowed and sobbed. I've read Pema Chodron endlessly until I stopped thinking about jumping off roofs. (Mine still needs a coat of tar before we can sell. We need three days without rain to do it. How are we ever going to get out of here by the end of April if we can't get it ready to sell?)

"Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

I'm finding comfort in the oddest places. The Allegheny Mountains are older than the rings of Saturn. They were the height of the Himalayas before the evolution of bones. Losing access to 92 (beloved precious) acres on the top of one mountain won't alter the power of a chain of hills 480 million years old. It's everywhere down there. I can follow the river and feel it everywhere (maybe someday we'll have the money for a little camp past Nebraska Bridge so I can smell the trees and earth and not have to be close enough to the Farm that my heart threatens to break again) Every inch of the place is inscribed in my memory in full 3d and surround sound

I will carry the place for the rest of my existence. And then my mother says there was a rifle stashed away for me - eight years since my grandfather's collection went to auction because my grandmother's sanity broke down in the wake of his sudden death and all of us kids were left without the (antique, carefully selected) rememberances I knew he'd wanted us to have. For eight years I had thought them all gone, just the memories of shooting skeet with my grandmother's 20 gauge (should have gone to Suz, they loved her as their grandchild as soon as I brought her home, and man was she good at tagging clay pigeons with it, there's photos of her at my wedding in her pretty dress showing how it's done) and plinking at soda bottles full of water with lever action Winchesters that were carried on saddles in the Old West (the boys should have gotten one each, the heaviest for Pat, the middle for the Doc, and the lightest for my amiable ex) They were all gone, I was told, but someone stashed one away for me. She's had my step-cousin-in-law bring it up so I could have it. The oldest one, and the most beautiful; 1760's or thereabouts, stock made of solid tiger maple from back when the trees were four feet across. Barrel forged by a patient smith. Carried to hunt for food when this country was still a colony. Too fragile by far to fire but one of Pappap's favorites; I remember how tickled he was when I told him the one I saw in the Royal Armouries wasn't nearly as nice.

I asked if the same step-cousin-in-law could be asked to bring Pappap's canoe up to my folks, and if my mother could grab a few small items from the house and she said yes, so I don't have to go there to the house where Bummy and Pappap aren't and haven't been for a few years now, and walk around in the places they're not, and have to deliberately choose a last time to stand in the field and then leave forever. The last time I was there it was a good day. It was sunny and spring and the leaves were just out, and a good friend and I were clipping small new branches from the apple trees for her to try and root (those 150 year old apple trees, will the new owners keep them? The one tree still gives the best pie apples ever grown and the russet tree gives crisp tart apples that are best after a hard frost. They could live another hundred years if tended.) I can live a lot easier with that having been inadvertently my last visit. I don't think I can go there ever again now, knowing it's the last time.

We're going to another farm to try and keep it going, I remind myself. If I can't keep my own best place I can do my damndest to help friend-family keep theirs. It's so beautiful there. There's so much to do. I'll have meaningful work again. No more retail hell. A garden. A couple of goats. Some bees. Two dozen horses to help care for. My mare, with all the turnout her little feral heart desires. Maybe she'll recover enough from the fractured hip by Fall for me to ride her again. I saw Mrs. Edwards in a dream and asked her and she smiled at me. I'm taking it as a good sign. There is so much awaiting us once we get unstuck from here. The Doc can hunt in the Fall. We can fish all summer in spare moments (Pappap said he was going to teach me to use the old spincasting rods he had from his father; they run differently from modern ones, and we didn't end up having time but I can learn online.) Unless my brother contests we're getting Pappap's canoe, and we'll haul it up with us and put it on the lake. It's sturdy enough to go fishing from. There's so much yet to do.

"When you see the Southern Cross for the first time/You understand now why you came this way/'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small/But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day"

We're going to be okay. I repeat it a lot. We're going to be okay. "Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

It's falling apart. It's coming together. There's so many moving parts, so many ducks not in a row. But we're going to be okay.

(Knock on wood)