... with the language we use and how we speak with each other?

Mm.

Well, um, there's an Arabic saying which I, I include in the book, um, which translates to, "A vessel spills what it contains." Right? And we are the vessel.

I'm not sure about your listeners if they're more oriented towards God or divinity, but I'll just use God here as an inclusive term.

Um, we are a v- vessel of, of God, and so what comes out of our mouth is an expression of what we carry inside.

It begins with turning in, with really paying attention to- ... what we're feeling and what we're experiencing so that we can accurately speak it.

Um, uh, to, to speak towards wholeness, which in a sense is the spiritual path, truly begins with sitting with ourselves.

Mm.

Hmm.

Um, so I'll share a poem too which is not a poem I've published yet.

So this will be a new poem I'm reading, um, with you all.

And it speaks to, um, this, uh, this in- invitation into the mysticism of life, and it's titled Mystic.

Do you too hear the sonorous music arising from behind the mountain just now? It isn't so much a song as it is a disquieting prophecy, a glorious harmony tuned to, dare I say, awe, by which I mean terror.

Not unlike the fountain of light dripping from the tips of leaves I open my quivering mouth to and drink from, never quenched.

Do not be alarmed.

Mm.

Okay, go.

All right.

Um, while I was in the house, I met Derrick, um, who then became my husband after the court case, but we moved in together perhaps two years after we started to date, and once I started, um, my master's in economics at the University of Utah, because we had our own place, I could cook.

And so I started to make hummus, and I would sell it to my colleagues and professors, and that same summer we were selling at the farmers market in Salt Lake City, and the next summer we were selling at five farmers markets, and in between we got into stores and whatnot.

Uh, part of that journey was that we joined the Utah Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and one evening we hosted the chamber for a social.

And that's where we met a man named Mark Lawrence, who had the idea to sue the s- to sue the state of Utah.

Hmm.

Uh, this poem is titled Bread and Salt.