Reflective Writing and Poetic Musing by Condemiang + Stories About the World

In human relationships, inner compatibility—rooted in true sustainability—is a more essential element than appearance or sensory attraction. Love may begin with the senses, but I believe it is ultimately sustained by inner strength.  It’s difficult to precisely define what it means for two people to “go well together” in a relationship. Does it mean their appearances match? If so, we inevitably imagine a handsome man and a beautiful woman. Looking back on my experiences in my twenties and thirties, I often evaluated a person’s worth based on superficial, sensory satisfaction—qualities that appealed to my tastes or were rooted in material aspects such as social status or wealth. But what we really need to look deeper into is “inner compatibility.” Inner compatibility cannot be bought or sold, imitated, or decorated. Of course, someone who possesses both sensory appeal and inner compatibility would be ideal—but meeting such a person is an uncommon blessing. If “sensory satisfaction” ...

  Solen Feyissa-N-GpAMItcPc@unsplash Now that summer has fully receded, from rough and lazy memories, I spot a love shaped like a stubby yellow pencil. Sometimes, while preparing for autumn, I go about picking up the memories I scattered in summer, one by one, but that blunted love—I just can’t bring myself to take it with me. One day, just as that summer was beginning, I first saw that love— with a deep and tightly packed core, a bright yellow exterior, solid and unblemished, dazzling to behold. I grasped that love without hesitation. I felt I could draw any picture, no matter the shape, write even the hardest of stories endlessly and beautifully. So it was, at the height of that summer, the love I held had grown quite short. Its core cracked and worn, its body tired and marked with my fingernail dents, my bite marks. Yet still, I resented that love— for not being the same as before. Then one day, as the summer’s heat began to ease, I happened to gaze upon a white wall filled with...

When the ups and downs of life cast shadows upon our souls, and even countless joys flicker like city lights in the distance, too far to touch— O you, with just the sight of your back turned, no, with only your shadow, I can dispel the gloom. For your trace, nobler than rest, remains.

O you! My distant, far-off name— Only now do I wish to part from you. It is not I who leaves beyond this window blurred with tears, but you who lets me go. With no one to send, no one to leave, suddenly it departs— and vanishes without a trace. In this formless space where we have no true being, we are dreaming of an emergency escape. O you! My long-held name—