this week’s Thought (singular)
my luck is about to turn, i can feel it. soon my hair wash days will once more begin to align with my going-out days.
a very warm welcome to all new readers. i love new readers so much that whenever i get an email about a new reader, i manifest that their scissors are sharp enough to cut whatever they want to cut. thank you for joining us. may you not get frustrated at their inefficiency and absolute inability to do the one thing they’re supposed to do oh my god why are these scissors so bad.
a very warm welcome to old readers as well. may good sense continue to prevail.
Before We Begin
TT #2 is still open for responses! here’s the prompt—
long distance friendships. you’ve moved away, or they’ve moved away, or you’ve both moved away. as we get older, how do you stop physical distance from causing relationships to drift apart? how do you stay in touch with the people whom you don’t live in the same place as anymore and/or don’t see as often as you used to be able to? do you have any weekly/monthly/annual rituals that help?
the rules stay the same as last time—send me your answers however, wherever, in whichever format, and we’ll put it together and have a community edition of thodi!
in case you missed it, you can find TT #1 here, which has your lovely answers to the question-
warmth. the weather is colder, noses are stuffier, minds are heavier, days are shorter. how do we stay warm emotionally and mentally? what brings comfort and lightness?
hi
this is based on a prompt list from instagram (find it here) that a dear friend had shared a couple of weeks ago.
current to-do list, really
drink more water.
honour the needs of your body. give it food when it asks for food, let it rest when it asks for sleep. keep it happy. do not grudge it. if you do, its requests become demands and orders, and you will have no choice but to obey. it is far easier to be a friend to it than an enemy.
stop giving up on to-do lists.
stop trying to race your sadness. you might feel like you're winning but your lead is always temporary. it's powering up with every lap, waiting for the right moment to strike. once it's charged, it runs you over with no warning, leaving you gasping at the side of the road, curled up in a ball and whimpering from the shock and the pain. it moves on. you stay stuck. instead, keep pace with it. when it slows down, you slow down. when it speeds up, you speed up. soon, it will stop, and so will you, and you can both go your separate ways.
laundry + be nicer to your friends
be less scared of everything, but mostly your feelings. be less worried about your own reactions to the future. stop being anxious about emotions that you may or may not feel. stop getting overwhelmed at the first sign of a strong feeling. recognise that they exist to help you. let them help you. feel them and allow them entry with grace. when they want to leave, don’t hold on. recognise that they exist to come and go. let them go.
reply to unread messages. it doesn’t have to be a project.
hope. stay awake and receptive to possibility and joy. sit on the grass in front of the hostel in the afternoon and let the sun lovingly graze your cheek and make you feel like only good things can happen to somebody so adored by the universe. stop acting like this is somehow a difficult thing to do. there could be nothing simpler. there could be nothing more natural.
become normal about change.
become normal about a lot of things, including but not limited to having a body, interpersonal relationships, food, the link or lack thereof between effort and success, the link or lack thereof between ambition and reality, home, family, new friendships, old friendships, scheduling work and non-work, not sleeping/reading/eating enough, sleeping/reading/eating too much, the concept of time, growing older, adulthood in general, existing outside of circumstance, shame + embarrassment + self-pity + vulnerability, being present, and being alive.
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A Picture!
English Recitation Competition
To a Certain Lady, in Her Garden, Sterling K. Brown (read the full poem here)
A step beyond, the dingy streets begin With all their farce, and silly tragedy— But here, unmindful of the futile din You grow your flowers, far wiser certainly, You and your garden sum the same to me, A sense of strange and momentary pleasure, And beauty snatched—oh, fragmentarily Perhaps, yet who can boast of other seizure? Oh, you have somehow robbed, I know not how The secret of the loveliness of these Whom you have served so long. Oh, shameless, now You flaunt the winnings of your thieveries.
Poem, Ron Padgett
I’m in the house. It’s nice out: warm sun on cold snow. First day of spring or last of winter. My legs run down the stairs and out the door, my top half here typing
[poets in their bassinets], Lucille Clifton
poets in their bassinets dream a splendid woman holding over their baby eyes a globe, shining with possibility. someone, she smiles, has to see this and report it, and they in their innocence believing that all will be as beautiful as she is, whimper use me, use me and oh how terrifying that she does.
The Good Side of the Internet
… has been permanently shifted to The Good Side of the Internet. subscribe for many many links at the end of each month, and tell your friends about it :D
this week’s Song
Everything You Needed by Doechii
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
to-do list, this week (and every week), read thodi. smile. go about day feeling warmer.