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Don Boivin's avatar

Hey, Justyna, sorry I didn't respond to your Note asking readers about their relationship with words. Life has me buzzing around a bit at the moment. One thought that I had wanted to share was a favorite book: The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, by Jonathan Gatchall. I really enjoyed this book; read it twice, in fact, but it's been some years, so I can't really get more specific about it.

I enjoyed your thoughts on words, and especially on holding onto words and teachings, allowing them to weigh you down, instead of releasing them. It sort of reminds me of some feelings that are starting to arise around my meditation group. The words related to Buddhism are starting to feel old and tired to me: if I hear "non-self" one more time.... 😊

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Sara Siegler's avatar

You ask how tight is my grip? At 73, I never want to hold things, people, feelings, plans-anything- too tightly because that hurts. Equally, now I hold in my open hands almost all that comes at me… maybe for a too-hot moment, maybe for years, but never forever. You correctly speak of stories which become legacies, and those which scatter away over time.

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