[2025:45] Panna Cotta Credo, Celia Lawren

I want so much. I want to swallow the world—its shapes, landscapes, peoples, cultures, animals, forests, foods—and savor each bite.

I want to hold the world like a Rubik’s Cube, shift pieces this way and that, to see where the light hits, where shadows lay. Where suffering rubs against living; how it inextricably sparks both joy or desperation.

I want to be free from the stories I’ve been told and the ones I tell myself. Stories that sharpen in the forge of my mind and deal a thousand cuts. I want to leave behind the bloodied bandages and second guesses…disappear into the trees.

I want the trees to whisper their secrets: how they work together for longevity; how they mediate with the wind to throw seeds to fertile ground. I want them to outrun the warming climate. I want to believe in such miracles.

Give me life’s incongruities. Let them sit on my tongue: the bitter, sweet, sour, salt. I want to be at peace living side by side with an ocean of sadness and tufts of happiness.

Even when my faithful bones turn to chalk, I will have the kiss of the world on my lips and a mouthful of creamy panna cotta.