I’ll try my best to remember this the next time I re-start a sentence for the seventh time in an awkward attempt to talk my way around the words I don’t know.
Category Archives: inspiration & encouragement
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: mr. rogers
I grew up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on a daily basis. He is one of those people you never have to meet in person to feel you utterly know and love. His voice was so peaceful and his embodiment of community, nurturing, and imagination so total and profound that he still functions like a security blanket for me – one look at his face and I’m instantly calm and content. I also happen to think Daniel Tiger is the most amazingly gentle and wise being that ever existed (yes, I use that word loosely). If I ever have a son he will be named Daniel in his honor. And because I love that name; I’m not entirely batty.
So of course Mr. Rogers would come up with the single most optimistic, encouraging, life-affirming statement of all time. Of course he would say, “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” Mr. Rogers is nothing if not a man who miraculously transforms your feelings – from despair to solace, gloominess to good cheer, limitations to opportunities – every time he opens up his mouth.
And every time I read this quote it applies to something new – whatever is going on in my life at the moment. Currently, it’s a reminder that though my charmed apartment life is soon coming to an end, I now have the impetus to downsize my worldly possessions in preparation for traveling the world. I have the chance to see things with the new perspective that comes with a move. My fresh start affords me the possibility of making new friends, finding new places to love, and reassessing what is really important in my life. And if worse comes to worst and I hate my new apartment, that could motivate me to bury myself in studying French instead… Although I really hope that will not be the case!
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: cheesy proverb edition
I don’t know why I’m posting this since I don’t really buy into it. It looks like something on the wall of a suburban assistant principal’s office and it speaks to me about .05%. I also think butterflies are overrated – their beautiful wings don’t fool me from their creepy bug essence.
But after receiving both bad health and bad home news in the same week, I needed to pretend there could be a silver lining just round the bend. So for this one moment, I will inhabit the brainspace of that glass-half-full cheerleader with unshakeable faith that everything happens for a reason, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, God is carrying us on the beach when there’s only one set of footprints, etc.
(get over the) hump-day inspiration
This is what it all comes down to, as I sit here too on-edge to go to sleep and too tired to force myself to. My rent is nearly doubling and I need to move within a couple of months, which puts a huge dent in my plans to save all my money and get the hell out of this city. Since I found out a few weeks ago, I’ve been really good about looking into all my options and staying on top of the apartment search, but the search itself is so anxiety-provoking that the more I do, the more stressed I become.
I suppose this could be part of the reason why it’s so hard to keep up with my language learning. Bigger fish to fry at the moment. The only thing to do is just breathe deep and carry on. The chips will eventually fall where they may, and life will go back to normal.
[Breathing break…….]
Encore, en français:
On y va!
in a slump
It’s been about three months since I committed to doing an hour of French and/or Spanish every day. I kept it up almost every one of those 90-something days – I guess that’s a good run. But now I’ve hit a period of sluggish, zero-motivation, would-rather-be-doing-anything-else apathy.
I know enough about myself to know that this happens whenever I take on challenging projects, and that most of the time I come out of my slump and get back on track, until the next dip, from which I eventually emerge, ad infinitum. There are highs and lows and I just need to take the lows with a grain of salt and the assumption that I will get back on the horse when the spirit moves me.
So for now I am giving myself a reprieve from my hour-a-day rule because I’ll only get mad at myself for inevitably breaking it. But this coming Monday I will force myself to attend a French Meetup and try to use that momentum to start up those Anki flashcard thingies soon thereafter.
Avec Dieu comme mon témoin, j’apprendrai le français! Because after all…
I have like five readers but I would welcome your words of keep-on-keeping-on, even from strangers! Especially from strangers. That would be neat.
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Ram Dass
Something like 13 years ago, soon after I had moved to Los Angeles to start my career in documentary production, I attended a screening of “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace.” The man blew my mind. He seemed to embody peace and empathy and a calm mind. For 13+ years that sort of peace and empathy and calm mind eluded me (especially in Los Angeles!), but lately I’m realizing it takes much more of an effort than I have been giving it. The nice thing – as this quote rightly points out – is that you can start at any time.
So here’s to opportunities to awaken, ever-present, just waiting to be grasped.
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Ray Bradbury
Beautiful poster design by The Half and Half. A limited edition of 50 prints will be on sale from June 2 to 30. So, should the spirit move you, you can jump off the art collector cliff and figure out how you will pay for it on the way down.
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Brené Brown
Brené Brown is the only person whose self-help Kool-Aid I drink. She strikes me as vastly different from self-styled how-to-live-your-life-with-purpose gurus – more wise, more authentic, more inspiring and more useful. I love her so much that even when she joined the cult of Oprah, I chose to look the other way. As long as she keeps speaking the truth about vulnerability, shame, empathy, courage and what she calls ‘wholeheartedness,’ she can worship Oprah all she wants.
(get over the) hump-day inspiration: C.S. Lewis
Because 34 is the new 14.
This photo, by the way, is from my first glimpse of South America along the Chilean coast. It would have been a more profound moment had I not flown through Toronto and been delirious with exhaustion. In retrospect I peg it as the kick-off to my new era of crazy dreaming and scheming. At the time I just stared and stared and thought, I will process this after I sleep.
solo in Paris – or anywhere really
My favorite thing is to wander aimlessly around a densely packed city and take in the sights. That’s basically all I did in Buenos Aires from early in the morning til the wee hours of night: walk and gawk, walk and gawk, stop to sit in a park, walk and gawk, stop to eat steak (always, steak), walk and gawk, walk and gawk. I must have covered a forty square mile area by foot and every single block had something to be in awe of, whether animal, vegetable or mineral.
Apparently the French have a word for people like me: flâneur, or stroller. Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote a piece for this week’s Times travel section about strolling Paris on her own, and it perfectly captures the magic of solo travel. The way that being alone enhances the senses and imbues every experience with both grounding stillness and skin-prickling energy.
Paris, she convincingly writes, is a city that “deeply rewards the solo traveler”:
In a city that has been perfecting beauty since the reign of Napoleon III, there are innumerable sensual details — patterns, textures, colors, sounds — that can be diluted, even missed, when chattering with someone or collaborating on an itinerary. Alone one becomes acutely aware of the hollow clack of pétanque balls in a park; the patina of Maillol’s bronze “Baigneuse se Coiffant” that makes her look wet even on a cloudless day in the Tuileries; how each of the empty wine bottles beside sidewalk recycling bins is the embodiment of someone’s good time.
I have only spent a few days in Paris and that was years ago – but I remember it as gray, snobby and overrated. I’ve never felt the need to return until I read this article, which had me wanting to jump on the next plane. Instead I practiced my flânerie / joggerie along the Hudson River on a drop-dead gorgeous New York City day and was thankful to be living in the walkingest city in the world.
(Photo: I took this picture when I visited Paris in 2000. Everything about this elderly couple, from their classic dress, to their slow unhurried stroll, to their arm-in-arm charm, felt perfectly suited to the city.)
talk foreign to me 