By Twyla Lidén

Granola

A group of people meet. They don’t know a lot, although they believe they do. It becomes a forced but necessary and quite beautiful relationship. They know each other ’s behavior but not their backgrounds. Clusters form, they break and reattach. It goes on until they finally merge with a few. Some clusters are larger than others. Some are lumpy, some are smooth, some are happy, some are sad, but they all serve a purpose. They all love being a part of something. Together these clusters make a nice bowl of granola. That crispy type, with some honey, a couple of nuts, a few wrinkly raisins. All soaking in that creamy oat milk, because some are allergic to dairy. It’s great. Some people prefer Muesli to granola, to be honest, they’re made out of the same thing. I really like granola though. Crispy, crunchy goodness. Although someone somewhere decided one day that is was a good idea to put apricots in it. It’s just stupid. There will always be a granola with some apricots in it, I’ll just have to survive or pick them out. But I give them to people who love them. That prefer apricots to raisins, which doesn’t really make sense to me. I get their raisins and it’s perfect. A nice little exchange. Benefitting everyone. A sweet symbiosis.