Michele × Florence (Fragments) 9.10.2024, 21:30–00:00 Listening to My Love Mine All Mine by Mitski (on loop)
F: It was as if we switched positions M: Switched positions, but with a similar gaping space– a negative space of loss, bounded by an invisible force F: Gasping, paced in solitude and similitude. Without knowing, lost and found. I guess our feelings of loneliness are quite universal anyway. M: We all crave intimacy, to care and to be cared for. An endless loop. Our understanding of the world, of love and care, begins with our mothers first, possibly beginning even in the womb. F: When I was the mother, I wondered if they understood love and care from me. If there were even any from me. I was too ashamed to say, I actually did try. Even till today there was only coldness I could feel in my womb, and the warmth was just everywhere else. M: How does it feel like to be floating in the womb? I imagine it radiating with warmth that’s both physical and felt beyond the body – a world that pulsates with a mother’s love. The heat of water, the softness of a mother’s voice, the steady flow of nutrients, and the quiet rise and fall of her raw unfiltered emotions. Perhaps it’s a space woven from both love and hate, tenderness and tension, for even hate comes from a place of care. F: Hate is the polar extreme of love. You have to care enough to hate, and love makes you care even more. We traveled to the highest of heaven and the deepest of hell. Our bodies change together, deteriorating and regenerating. Growing, aging, disappearing into eternity, in the form of memory. M: They say grief is all the unspoken, unexpressed love that you have for someone. I believe the process of grieving lasts for a lifetime, leaving you changed forever. There’s a quote I particularly like from Meghan O Rourke’s book The Long Goodbye: 'Nothing prepared me for