Lobo and I were napping in the sunshine today and it felt really nice but I don’t have a picture because I didn’t have my phone with me and felt too lazy to go back to my room for it (the above is an older pic). Plus, his coat was soft and warm from his bath earlier which was nice too 🙂
Yes to cinnamon sticks. I have one dangling from my mouth, two in my pocket, a few broken pieces in my wallet and a secret stash in the kitchen closet. You know how you can tell if a pumpkin is going to be yummy by the thickness of its stalk? In my experience, the thinner the cinnamon stick, the spicier it is. The ones that make my eyes water are the ones I love best.
3
Plants
My mother loves her plants more than her children. Maybe that’s why they outdo themselves.
Thanks for stopping by 🌻
My friend Riya made this portrait of Lobo for his birthday on December 5. She’s sweet 🙂
Isn’t it amazing how there’s always a song out there for every season, every rhythm of the heart — the rhythm of joy, of despair, of hope, of friendship, of freedom, of…life itself? Isn’t it beautiful?
I’ve been listening to a lot of instrumental in 2020, in addition to rock, contemporary and indie music. However, what I look forward to every night these days is a group of foxes in the open grassland in the back of our house. They create quite a sound-show (you won’t see anything if you look out into the darkness with a torch. They hide really well.)
I like to believe in things. A lot of things actually.
It took me years to get used to the idea that I have my permission to believe in whatever makes my life more inspired. That is not to say I don’t like truth. Truth first, every time. Truth first, always.
But for things that can be believed without hurting anyone, or things that are so mysterious that we have no reason to believe (or to not believe in them) I choose to believe. Well most of the time. Even if it sounds downright ridiculous when said out loud.
For example, my best buddy Stormdragon (yeah that’s not her real name) likes to believe that the universe doesn’t give two shits about her existence. That she is cosmically insignificant. That’s kind of what Carl Sagan believed too right? (I found a research article on this topic). Stormdragon admires Carl Sagan a lot and she’s studying Physics so there’s that. She tells me that thinking of it that way helps her to breathe, gives her space to think and do things without overthinking consequences. That is a good belief.
It works well for her but for me…well believing that gives me a severe case of shivers_by_existential_crisis.
A few nights ago I was reading an article about Artificial Intelligence and I somehow ended up being thoroughly convinced that maybe the universe doesn’t need to give two shits about our individual existence. Maybe it’s all automated. I mean it sort of… makes sense? I have first hand experience in seeing karma at work on multiple occasions. Multiple occasions. Maybe it’s like a system generated confirmation email? I have not completely thought this thing through but—
—like I said, I like to believe in things. And I like to have faith that I can do enough good karma to deserve the things I want from life.
Let’s all believe in whatever we want to, with a healthy acceptance of realism.
And while we’re doing that, let’s defend our friend’s, our neighbor’s right to believe in whatever they want to. After all, we can disagree deeply and love each other just as deeply.
3
Coconut oil
I’m a big fan of coconut oil. It’s so useful right? You can cook with it, use it as a body moisturizer, warm it and use it for a nice blissful scalp massage, you can also simply sit and smell it for hours like a loon. It’s the best.
4
Google translate
Google translate helps me to read and admire poems, stories, quotes and articles in languages that I cannot otherwise understand. In a way, it also aids in learning a new language. Among other things like searching for the meaning of a random word, it also enables me to read blogs on WordPress that are in languages other than English, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali, which are the only four languages I know.
When particularly fed up of my perpetually cold feet, my mother likes to weigh the possibility of actually giving birth to me once upon a time against picking me up from Siberia, often concluding that they probably picked me up in Siberia. Never mind the fact that they have never been to uh, Siberia.
So yes I’m grateful for woolen socks. They make life a lot easier, and my mother a lot less annoyed.
One of these days, we’ll get to seven things again. Five is good too though, right?
Thanks for stopping by … ACTUALLY YOU KNOW WHAT, I have a Number 6! I didn’t include it here early on because I was undecided on whether it would fall in the category of Music. Here it is:
6
Spoken word poetry and stand-up comedy
Decided, they’re a category on their own. In one word, they-are-two-different-things-but-they-are-lifesavers-and-this-is-technically-a-single-word.
I’ll leave you with a recommendation for each. I appreciate you staying this long.
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
Jonathan Safran Foer
That moment in Inside Out when Sadness saves the day
2
My parents
Here’s the truth, plain and simple — I don’t appreciate my parents enough. But they’re the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me (if/when Me=an energy ball floating around the universe trying to find a way to reach and live on planet Earth).
I like my brother too, and I’ll include him in my gratitude list if he stops poking me for three days straight.
My father was probably telling my brother not to click until we said “Cheese!” — which he did anyway. Also, my mother knitted that cute purple sweater.
3
Cheesy novels with emotionally mature characters
Sometimes you just need some sweetness in your life. I recently discovered Penny Reid, who is a wonderful and admirable author of fiction. Her characters feel real and lovable. I read a romance novel after a long time and the way Reid spun an endearing story around a subject as difficult as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in one of her books ‘Beard in Mind’ that it made me want to read all of her books, if only to get to know her characters and to learn something from them to become a better person in my own life.
There are three instead of seven things today but on the plus side, I’m really, really really grateful for these three things. And I’m sleepy.
There’s a sweet old song in my native Assamese that my mother likes to hum every winter and sometimes irrespective of the season and I like to hum it with her. It goes something like this:
I discovered a pair of my brother’s old denims in a corner of the sweater closet today. Now I just got to convince Ma to let me cut it to fit. I am okay with the bagginess but it’s a bit too long for my sad five feet even height.
5
Walks
6
Good tailors
Let me tell you something important: a good tailor will never flatter you. Never. In fact they’ll be brutally honest and super deft and super duper quick with on-the-spot work like doing a quick fix or fitting. That’s how you know they’re good at their job.
7
Thermal PJs
That’s all I got for now. Thanks for stopping by 😊
A group of us helped ourselves to one of our nicer professor’s kitchen last year around this time. Needless to say, we were all stuffedlike pillows by the time we made it to our respective homes.
P.S: Strangely enough, I have never clicked a picture of my mother’s heavenly dishes. I have no idea why. What I do know is that I’m usually too busy eating to think about anything else. I mean, I don’t think I’m physically capable of doing much else while eating food cooked by her.
That felt like a big confession lmao.
3
Naps
That’s Lobo. Lobo naps noice. Nap like Lobo.
4
Studio Ghibli
I was watching Pom Poko five minutes ago. What’s the latest Ghibli movie you’ve watched/rewatched, hmm?
5
Olives
Fresh from my jethai’s garden (my father’s big sister). Try them cooked and mashed with mustard oil and a sprinkle of salt. My mouth’s started watering already. It makes an excellent side-dish. Believe me.
6
That I can read
Some days you can read just about anything under the sky: poems, trees, stories, faces, facts. On other days you need to be convinced that you won’t suddenly stop knowing how to read sentences.
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Moisturizer
Whoever smart, wonderful human invented moisturizers, thank you. No, really, Thank You. Google tells me it’s Galen from Greece. Image from Unsplash
TINKLING TALES 