row, row, row your boat
+ TT #2
this week’s Thought (singular)
a new year’s resolution is a choice, but a new year’s revolution is inevitable
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 they have a really nice hair day. thank you for joining us. may your hair lie just so.
a very warm welcome to old readers as well. may good sense continue to prevail.
Before We Begin
we start the new year with another thodi together 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
we had started 2024 with this post on hope, on letting it find you again and again and again.
the idea of being intentional about hope came from a new year’s post by the lovely
(2024). hope took on different forms during the year—sometimes it was a tiny and powerful glow, sometimes it was grit-toothed and violent, and sometimes it barely appeared from behind the fog. the endeavour to make it a constant, shadowing presence continues in 2025.beautifully enough, this year’s first post is also inspired by a tiya post - 2025.
2024 was full of volatility, both in external circumstances and my own feelings about them. it was a constant effort to stay afloat, and some attempts were more violent than others. this year, i’d like to look at dealing with that volatility and change in a gentler way.
we return to the assorted media format, interspersed with my own little observations.
i mention stillness a lot in this newsletter, and calmness and slowness. i think what i’m really looking for is steadiness. the ability to stay in place and not be buffeted by weak and strong winds.
i could do and be many things. i could wrap a sieve around my person, a porous shawl with teensy-weensy holes that only lets in what i can withstand. i could be a white dupatta, hung out to dry, fluttering in the elements but holding onto the wire with a clothespin. or i could grow so large and so strong and so solid that i wouldn’t need to do anything else. i could just stay upright.
ghost in the shell (1995) maybe change is tough because attachment is easy. if i make a home in every place, person, feeling, or thing that i encounter, then moving out is a tiresome process. then any deviation, any small change in the current, is a brutal shock.
i have a sticker on my laptop now that proclaims ‘this too shall pass’. i saw a tweet recently that said ‘does the this know that we’re trusting it to pass?’ does it? when i’m going through it, it’s difficult to remember this impermanence. maybe if i held it all a little looser. maybe if it was less of a heavy suitcase handle and more of a bird creating a ripple on the surface of a river. sudden and violent in the moment, yes. but lightning-quick and nothing to show for its landing or take-off in a few seconds. the river will continue to run.
why am i so scared of the boat rocking? after the storm, i’ll still be on it, oars still in hand, steady movements once again gently lapping at the water beneath me. because despite it all, i believe in merrily, merrily, merrily. however aggressive the winds and waves become, i hold on to the faith that the universe will keep me upright. i row, row, row my boat, and allow hope to be my oars.
sometimes, it’s as easy as asking myself if anything is that serious (no), or if i’m making a mountain out of a molehill (yes). other times, it feels much bigger than me, insurmountable even. once i get past it, however i get past it, i’m left drained and embarrassed. all those frantic, flailing limbs to stay upright in a tiny pond, when all i had to do was look up and see the flowers lining the bank
it’s a new year, but the same me that i carry through time. we go together, and we grow together. this might not exactly be a resolution, as the goal is not to resolve anything, but this is what i’d like to do in 2025 -
i will trust in myself. i will trust in the universe. i will embrace transience. any time i think i can’t do it, i will take a step back and look at the forest instead of zooming in on the trees. nothing is so serious and nothing is insurmountable. i will row, row, row my boat, and allow hope to be my oars.
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A Picture!
The Good Side of the Internet
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this week’s Song
Percussion Gun by White Rabbits
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
ahhh thank you so much ! i hope 2025 is gentle and soft and full of so much wonder and hope for you, sending you so much love and light <3