"Pach'un tzij" is a Kaqchikel noun phrase that refers to a braid of words--or a poem.  Learning languages outside of our own cultures offers us new ways of conceptualizing the world.

Today, I basked in appreciation for this phrase, short, sweet, and poignant.

PhD life seems to be about crafting the perfect braid.  And likely it is only perfect to its creator, and only for a moment, because she quickly goes bald as the process of scholarly criticism unravels and uproots her meticulously woven strands.

This blog is for a different type of writing: one that admits to inelegance, but strives for beauty in the mundane.  One that recognizes writing as ongoing, processual, and simultaneously nostalgic, full of foresight and unspoken understandings--perspectives that cross the conventional boundaries of time.

This is, above all, an effort to write in the tight embrace of imperfection.