I think of underwater sonar — whales talking about the meaning life — when I see these objects of a different time, a different concept of my life, rearranged now in this new Way. There’s Alex’s girlfriend wearing the scarf he bought in Paris when the weather turned unexpectedly wet and damp. I was in Shakespeare & Co. looking at books while he got it. There’s the orange spotted glass vase my friend F. gave us for our wedding. We got several vases, but this was my favorite. And the wooden box we picked up on the side of the street after a boozy dinner with friends, intending to use it in the garden.

I unpack the kids’ duffel bag which Alex sent home with them last weekend and find other things: a skort for Bea, a t-shirt for Thomas. These are new things, cycling into my house on trips without me. Things made of new arrangements and new ways, like bones repairing themselves in a way that makes most sense.

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