Hi. I'm so glad you're here. This week I'm thinking about these oyster shells I collected from the Chesapeake bay in early June.

These shells remind me that pressure creates patterns. The friction of water and sand, wave by wave, slowly wears away the layers of shell, making an opening, a window, that’s repeated across all of the oyster shells here.

They also remind me that transformation looks different for each of us, even when exposed to (roughly) the same kinds of pressures and friction. Sand and water create such different shapes from shell to shell.

This collection of shells, both visually similar and obviously different, feels like an important reminder this summer. So many of us have been going through such pressure and friction, under the ongoing pandemic and the extractive grind of capitalism. It feels impossible to me to think of this time of such exhaustion and hardship as an individual experience, when so many of us are going through hard times because of the pressures of systems.

This pressure has worked on us in unique ways, given our class status, race, the country we live in, our ability, and other identities. But I hope we know now, more than we did before, that it’s not just us as individuals experiencing these pressures, but all of us, together.

I'm curious how this lands, or if these reflections resonate with how you're feeling these days. Feel free to hit reply and let me know.

Sending you love from the river,

Kali

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