In search of solace, I dig into my chest. I search to feel present, whole, one with my environment. In my heart, I know that to truly be present here means to dissociate oneself from human nature, as our times are devoted to extraction and exploitation…to the point of extinction. I dig into my chest to remind myself that I can be here, and elsewhere spiritually. I dig into my chest to remind myself that I want better for our malleable species, and in order to protect and nurture this desire, I must be present. I must be connected to ground, no matter the conditions of the soil, the rubble, the asphalt, the concrete, the hardwood floors- and so I dig. My bronze cast is a cuffed imprint of my right hand-heel, meant for digging in between my sternum and my left clavicle. That must make my heart ground. With my cuff, I cannot quite reach my heart; the contact is not direct, but one day I will get there. One day, I will be covered in dirt or transformed in to ashes, and finally I will be protected, but more importantly I will protect and nurture ground, Earth, and critters granted fortunate permission to experience it.
Until then, my bronze cuff becomes a part of a private meditative practice, a catchall, in the form of reminder and warning of the self-sabotaging footprints such minute species can leave in a shared habitat. A species is responsible and its individual actors are culpable. Rectification can only begin once the highest peaks become common ground (April, 2021).
