Snippets of my week working from home and social distancing.
The usual breakfast of vegemite and avocado toast.
Time to work.
The left-hand side view from my desk. It was a gloomy, cloudy week.
Homemade pizza by N for dinner!
Finished this manga book. Onto my next Masuda Miri book. I like her contemplative simplicity in her drawings and writing. I try to read 4 pages every morning as my Japanese study routine. Any words I don’t know, I search on the Daum dictionary app and pencil it in.
Garlic clam pasta with white wine by N, of course. My favorite!
After a walk around Fort Greene Park to get some fresh air, N made cookies and we watched ‘Sweeney Todd’ to end our Friday.
Saturday was spent all day at home – yet again. This has become a pattern where I stay home all day on one day of the weekend and go out on the other. N made the perfect crepes on Sunday morning.
Few hours after breakfast, I went out to get some life admin done. N wanted to join and we ended up going to White Noise Coffee. They have most reliable wifi. It was productive, except I deferred doing my taxes to another weekend.
We walked through the Dekalb shops and came across a pleasant surprise – McNally Jackson bookstore opened! I refrained from buying any books or stationery. The bookstore is a lot more expansive than it look from the outside. There is a reading nook with a large table upstairs. I made myself comfortable and finished “A New Earth” I have been reading for past few weeks.
It was ten years ago when I read Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”. During that time I was going through some typical twenties crises and this book helped me to manage my thoughts and emotions, to separate the situation and my thoughts. It was so powerful I purchased copies to give out to my friends. Fast forward ten years, having experienced much more of life’s lessens, this book enlightened me to a whole new perspective of how to, in essence, live day-by-day and navigate this life with my consciousness and with humans that I will interact with in various situations. I loved it. I don’t think I’ve highlighted so furiously on my kindle before.
Life becomes stressful and anxious when my mind is dwelling on the past, or trying to live in the future when that obviously cannot happen. Being frustrated, offended or feeling any negative emotions towards a person no longer needs to linger internally. All I have to do is identify the ego that is talking, observe why it’s reacting in such manner (most likely because it’s in reaction to the other person’s ego) and to just be aware and conscious of it and let it go. If you no longer identify yourself as the ego, that is when you are in complete consciousness. Growing up at church I remember the sermons about being humble, that “the last shall be first and the first last” and how we should follow in Jesus’ steps. It’s one of those things that you know it’s “good” to be humble, but you don’t truly no why. In the Bible it says “Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth”. In the older version the word was “meek” instead of “humble”. So who are the meek or humble? It is those who are ego-less. When you let go of the ego and the form, stop behaving from the conditioned mind, I can instead live a life of peace that’s true to myself.
There is a chapter on life’s purpose and that was transformative for me. By living in consciousness, i.e., ego-less, it will begin to flow into what you do, and in the modalities of awakened doing – acceptance, enjoyment, enthusiasm. That’s it. That’s the purpose of being. It’s a new earth of freedom and peace.
So yes, that was the book I finished over the weekend. You know what else I finished over the weekend?
A K-drama called “Crash Landing on You” that’s on Netflix. It’s so cheesy but cute. It works because of Hyunbin.
Friday on the way to work with my little fruit basket
Saturday brunch at Olea. Such a good spot. The weather was beautiful and we all went walking around Fort Greene. I went home and had a sweet three-hour nap. Don’t you just love weekend?
From ‘A New World’
On Sunday I binge watched ‘Cheer’ on Netflix. It will make you laugh and cry, squirm in anguish and have your heart broken and be so inspired as you follow the college kids’ courageous stories. I also need a Jerry in my life. I miss him already.
For anyone who wants to delve a little deeper into how and why America has become such a polarized country it is today, how a blatant demagogue currently sits as the President of the United States (spoiler: it began decades ago) and is perplexed as to how anyone can support such a repugnant person with an absolute lack of basic decency and respect (yes, I have strong opinions on said person’s character), may I recommend this book to you as a great starting point.
I say this as an outsider who moved to the U.S in 2016, utterly shocked by the turn of events, attempting to observe and seek answers. Although I did have a high level understanding, I also found myself sitting next to a senior, white, middle-aged man who, regurgitating the day’s tweet, tried to school me on the different “updated” methods of wire-tapping he believed Obama deployed when Trump took over the White House (I actually thought he was being sarcastic at first). From then on, together with my travels around the States, I knew the situation was layered with much more complexity
The book provides historical examples of other countries’ preservation or destruction of democracy, such as Europe in the 1930s and South America from the 1970s. Of course, it also examines America’s history and the political norms that upheld America’s democracy. As someone who did not grow up studying American history in school, it was also an opportunity to learn more about American political history. I feel like this book should be a compulsory read, especially for anyone working for the White House.
I am most definitely living in the States in a critical time of its history. As the 2020 elections looms, all I hope for is a fair and just future for the future generations to come.
I read James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’ in the beginning of the year. I was planning to re-read it, however I found this website that is a useful summary of the key points.
