Uprooted

This is a short, animated video visualizing a free verse that I wrote about loss—loss of love and friendship. Its grief manifested in my chest and tingled to my fingertips. During this sore spot in time, I was left feeling raw and bare. Upheaval and uprooted – like a young flowering plant that had been torn from the earth. And in the process of healing, I wrote this-

“My heart is an old pot
Filled with tiny pieces of dead root

My heart is an old pot
Filled with remnants of all the love that has grown and withered in it
All my friends, and you

And with every new person that’ll come and leave,
I’ll khurpi my pot and set it ready

My heart is an old pot
Deeper and deeper
A burial ground of love”

Love has always been a noble act in my eyes, worthy of high praise. In its trenches, I realized that our common perception and idea of love often does not align with our ideals and human boxes, because love is an instinct that is acted on. It is not a notion. Romantically and platonically, it is gratitude.
With all my friends who have come and gone or stayed, I’ve learned that love isn’t about its permanence or duration but the acceptance to say goodbye with a heart full of memories, and the strength to loosen your soil again as it hardens with grief - to tend to yourself as many more beautiful seeds and plants of companionship await to grow from you.
Roots, a stem, and leaves, this is the shape and body of love within me.

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