I am taking a non-violent communication class, and yesterday we practiced mirroring.
One of our exercises was to describe our feelings using gibberish.
Then, we were asked to respond in gibberish.
People commented they felt understood.
Someone in the group said: “If gibberish works, then silence also works.”
Words are part of the dinner; they are not the whole dinner.
It’s pineapple season in Iquitos and it’s pineapples all the way down.
Yesterday I ate one and cut three. I cut the scales off first and saved them for tea.
I ate around the core of one of them as that’s where it’s sweetest.
Fruit is the best marketing.
It’s selling pure possibility in the form of a seed, and the hope of it going somewhere. It contains registered nutrition. And actual desirable flavor. It combines well with other delicious things. It’s colorful and interesting.
Pineapple is also a bromeliad, and bromeliads make incredible weaving fibers.
Reach for it when you feel weak.
Fibers need to be worked through before they are ready.
Even strongly structured plants need a good squishing to be something that runs through your fingers.
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Spines need to be removed.
Leaves crushed.
Stalks broken open by stepping on them.
What should not surprise us is that the opening takes force, the kind you ignore until your hands get tired, 20 minutes in.
A master artisan can go all day and night.
The fiber is the structure. Getting to it might take an ancient scraper.
