{"id":7030936,"date":"2026-08-06T22:49:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/for-what-binds-us-my-year-in-review\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T22:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:49:38","slug":"for-what-binds-us-my-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7030936","title":{"rendered":"For What Binds Us: My Year in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Books read in 2023.\u2002Not pictured are <\/em>Buddenbrooks and <\/em>Bleak House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s been a wild and crazy year for me, personally, professionally, emotionally, physically, etc. Most of my focus has been on building an ICF house with my business partner and getting my daughter through the process of applying to college.\u2002I had a milestone birthday, went to my first ever NFL game and had an absolute blast, did a little traveling to West Virginia to pick up a puppy and spent the holidays surrounded by my entire family and favorite people. I\u2019ve only read five books this year, albeit five rather large novels.\u2002Dickens\u2019s Bleak House <\/em>and Maugham\u2019s On Human Bondage <\/em>especially resonated with me because of the writing styles and the resiliency of the characters that these authors portray.\u2002I keep thinking about Sir Leicester Dedlock in Bleak House<\/em> who seems like an unemotional, conservative, upper class Englishman who only cares about his family name and title.\u2002 But when he learns a secret that his wife has been hiding from him for years, he decides that he doesn\u2019t care about any of it.\u2002His love and devotion for her and his resilience are what carries him through.\u2002He isn\u2019t discussed as much as some of Dickens\u2019s other, more interesting characters, but Sir Dedlock left a lasting impression on me. <\/p>\n

Resilience has been the theme, yet again, for me this year.\u2002Sometimes I wonder how many times I can suffer a setback or a disappointment before I am shattered and can\u2019t put the pieces back together anymore.\u2002But, then again, I\u2019ve also had the privilege of witnessing the incredible resilience of my daughter who has handled her own setbacks with poise and grace.\u2002So as I sit here on one of the last days of the year, with physical scars on my hands and legs from pouring concrete and the old, figurative scars on my heart, I have an overwhelming sense of pride and excitement for what is ahead of me in the new year.\u2002Jane Hirshfield, in her newest collection, The Asking<\/em>, reminds me that wounds and scars are a good thing, they bring us closer to our humanity and make us stronger and more connected to the world and those we care about:<\/p>\n

For What Binds Us
There are names for what binds us:strong forces, weak forces.Look around, you can see them:the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,nails rusting into the places they join,joints dovetailed on their own weight.The way things stay so solidlywherever they've been set down---and gravity, scientist say, is weak.<\/p>
And see how the flesh grows backacross a wound, with a great vehemence,more strongthan the simple, untested surface before.There's a name for it on horses,when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,<\/p>
as all fleshis proud of its wounds, wears themas honors given out after battle,small triumphs pinned to the chest---<\/p>
And when two people have loved each othersee how it is like ascar between their bodies,stronger, darker, and proud;how the black cord makes of them a single fabricthat nothing can tear or mend. <\/p><\/pre>\n
I do know that more reading and writing need to be an integral part of my year\u2014I wrote to an acquaintance recently that immersing myself in big, complex books and poetry like Hirschfields\u2019s is good for my scars and my soul.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Books read in 2023.\u2002Not pictured are Buddenbrooks and Bleak House. It\u2019s been a wild and crazy year for me, personally, professionally, emotionally, physically, etc. Most of my focus has been on building an ICF house with my business partner and getting my daughter through the process of applying to college.\u2002I had a milestone birthday, went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7030937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194615,194616,99035],"tags":[194617,3749,629],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7030936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-literature","category-opinion-posts","category-poetry","tag-binds","tag-review","tag-year"],"yoast_head":"\nFor What Binds Us: My Year in Review - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7030936\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For What Binds Us: My Year in Review - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Books read in 2023.\u2002Not pictured are Buddenbrooks and Bleak House. 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