The Best Thing I Heard Yesterday

Our mother grows angry
Retribution will be swift
We squander her soil and suck out her sweet black blood to burn it
We turned money into God and salivate over opportunities to
crumple and crinkle our souls for that paper, that gold
Money has spent us
Left us in small boxes, dark rooms, bright screens, empty tombs
Left investing our time in hollow philosophies
To placate the fear of our bodies returning back into our mother
Demand awakening
But the path we have taken has rotted
Ignite, stand upright, conduct yourself like lightning because
The retribution will be swift

—Tanya Tagaq / “Retribution”

What I’m Reading:

“Nature, for me, was a way of taking me out of my own mental chaos, and the surroundings that fed into that. But I always tell people it doesn’t have to be hiking. It can be any activity, or just a place in nature that’s quiet. A place to confront your demons or your darkness and a way to take steps towards growth.”

— Jesse Cody, to Nate Weitzer / “Thru-hiker Jesse Cody is going the distance for mental health” / The Boston Globe