To Count by Touching

Today's NEPO was definitely written for me!

When we count with our eyes, we stall the heart. 

For the eyes can see clearly what is broken without ever feeling the break, 

and the mind can calculate the loss without ever sewing up the wound. 

Without touching the life coming apart before us, we can race to rebuild 

before the wrecked dream ever hits the ground. 

While this makes us resilient and efficient as ants, it also keeps us 

from ever living in what we build.

Alas, what makes us precise and efficient can also begin a life of neurosis: 

not touching what we see, not feeling what we know. 

This is how the mind skips the heart's step. 

How we forget that blood on the news is real, 

that the cry from the street is attached to something living.

We think we protect ourselves by taking inventory and moving on, 

but we only spin our web tighter. 

We need to count by touching, not by adding subtracting. 

To count with our hands brings us deeper than all counting. 

Then numbers give way to notes, 

and sums give way to song.