“You start to find your body again. Notice your feet on the ground.
Walk barefoot in the grass and scrunch your toes into the cold soil.
You eat full meals sitting down without your computer on or a chapter
in front of you to edit. You watch movies at the two-dollar theater,
attend Lynx games, play soccer, and work out with friends. When
people talk you actually listen to them. Your mind does not keep the
running list of the next project, the email that wasn’t sent, the citation
that needs to be added to the footnote on page forty-three. You start to
recover. Even your breath is different. Lungs expand more. Instead of
short shallow breaths, air now moves from your core. It’s not about
anxiety, you realize. It’s the weight of centuries, of doubt, of other
people’s stories. If you do the work, write, most importantly listen to
your research participants, to your family, your breath comes more
easily.”–Jessica Lopez Lyman, How Dare We! Write
Excerpt from How Dare We! Write
