Recovery

Zhao Pei Chun, "Chinese doctor feeling the pulse
of a patient," Wellcome Images

The resting heart is what we must listen for, if
we wish to understand the body. We can listen
with our ears, our fingers, to the resting heart’s
tidal ebb and flow through the skin at our wrist
or throat, and mark it. But that’s not enough to
learn what it’s saying. We must hush and listen
close at the same time over time, the tidal rush
being a live thing in itself, needing daily tending.
By touch, with attention, the resting heart will
spell and number the body’s story—if staccato,
pulse busily scouring out the body’s tide-pools;
if a slow even tempo, pulse gently tugging the
worn self back together—found, and recovered.