02. Being with Goodbye
Reflections from my final days in Miami + soup making as symbolism for collective power
Hi Again. Todays offering comes from the forgotten files of my Substack drafts. Written in late June, I’d like to say that it was the pace of life alone that has left this newsletter unsent. In truth however, it was probably also a bit of the hyper-scrutiny and misguided perfectionism that meets me in my newness of crafts. With that, i want to bring this out of my ego’s hoarding and onto your screen in hopes that it may still resonate with some and serve the rhythms of your own life.
~talk more soon~
Since i last been here, a lot has happened. Things new, but mostly older things coming to a head. I am leaving miami soon. in 4 weeks to be exact.
Id like to say that my departure is motivated solely by a north node in Sagittarius and a long deferred dream of living internationally. but in truth, this chapter of my life is mostly defined by a self-advocating [and privileged] commitment to meet otherwise hostile, and precarious conditions of our exasperated housing crisis with a preserved sense of choice.
I will arrive first in France, for a few days of culinary immersion, by my luck (or alignment) i’ll be staying with the France director of Slow Foods. From there, i’ll be making my way back to my ancestral homeland of Lebanon. I have a really exciting project in the works there and will be investing much of my creative energy these next few months exploring questions of belonging, memory, and responsibility that are curious for those of diaspora.
I am in the second phase of a grant selection process for a creative project I am co-creating with some of my best friends. It is exciting because we may get funding for an art project we believe in, but more so, because the intimacy of this process has affirmed that i can handle interdependence, risk taking, and creation with my people.
Im not sure what awaits for my (re)connection with Miami. in some moments i fantasize that I dont leave and instead stay in the city. what id really like, is to fight. harder, louder, and more relentless than ever before. what id like to say is that Miami will be ours: the working class peoples, the families, teachers, students, farmers and tenants. Those that know her as home, and exist in intimate communion with her wellbeing .
No matter what the migrating elite of the world will try to say, Miami will always belong to those who live in ritual with her and her waters — ocean, rain, swamp and tears.
Soup is Symbolism for Building Collective Power.
it warms the body.
it brings together and harmonizes many things to create something new, much like the organized fighting power required to protect our communities. It models alchemy.
fire is required, boiling is essential, but so is simmer. the art is in the temperance.
sharability. soup can stretch and blur mathematics of any recipe. somehow there is always enough
Aroma. it lingers. Defying spacial mappings of architecture and boundaries in a way that only community solidarity and evaporating liquids can. soup is an offering to entire spaces.
Thank you to my neighbor in apartment 1 who’s aromatic kitchen always made my arrival home feel infectiously cozy. I’ll savor your impact.
RECIPE: My moms lentil soup
im a big fan of all soups and broths, be them rich and complex, bright, or delicate and floral. I also love expanding the bounds of what we typically think of flavorings and spices by adding herbs and flowers often reserved for teas into my broths. In my kitchen, anything nourishing, balanced, and on hand is fair game. This recipe is for my moms version of one of my favorite Lebanese soups. It is both hearty and simple.
Ingredients
1/4c rice : 1 bag of lentil
3 small yellow onion, diced
1 carrots (shredded)
Cumin
S,p to taste
chicken bouillon cube (optional)
lemons
Instructions
Bring lentil and rice to boil (cover in water 1 pinkie length over lentils) (30-40min) (medium, uncovered)
Sautée separately: onion + carrot. cook until soft. season w cumin, s&p at the end.
add onion carrot mix into lentils, boil 20 min more.
Blend to preferred texture , adding water as needed.
finish with a generoussss amount of lemon juice before serving. more than you think.