SATURDAY 31 MAY 2025 -- A POEM.
A few years ago, I was taking an environmental communication course. In it, we were to do presentations on a poet of our choice from the professor's list. I remember chosing Rumi and reading "A Great Wagon" in front of the class. I really did enjoy it and it gave me inspiration to write this one. I first wrote it in October of 2023, making small tweaks over the last however long, always sitting in my diary or in my head. But I wanted to share it now. Why not? Maybe it sucks, maybe it's the best thing ever. xoxo
click here!
WEDNESDAY 28 MAY 2025 -- SHAKSHUKA AND RITUAL.
Hi friends. I saw a Tik Tok the other day (yeah it's rotting my brain, whatever) where the creator was talking about Anthony Bourdain's quote "if you're too lazy to peel garlic, you don't deserve to eat garlic." At first I was like... uh okay Tony, but the creator went on to make some very beautiful points.
Cooking is a ritual. It's ancient. Engrained. He (the video creator) reframes this quote all to say... you owe it to yourself to peel the garlic. To let the odor cling to your fingers. To peel back the skin that protected it in the soil for months and to be grateful for it.
Tonight I made Shakshuka for dinner. I didn't have all I needed so I drove to the store. Lingered in the produce section, thought over my choice in onion. Got home and prepared my space. Took half an hour to chop up all the veggies. Listened to Iggy Pop and A Tribe Called Quest and danced while tomatos softened on the stove. I ate it, packaged and placed it in the fridge. And took my time to clean up after myself because I am so ! fucking lucky to have to do that.
Reframing those things we complain about - feeding ourselves, grocery shopping, cleaning the dishes, whatever - in this way has helped me be calmer, happier. How lucky I am to have to go to the store and buy food for myself. How lucky!
TUESDAY 27 MAY 2025 -- BOURDAIN, SAGAN, AND MY LONGING FOR MORE.
Hello there. This is my first official post on my miniblog, isn't that exciting!! I've been thinking a lot about Carl Sagan and Anthony Bourdain recently. I truly believe they were some of the greatest minds of our time. Perhaps, they were before my time. I mean, Sagan died 7 years before I was even born. And while I was very much alive when Bourdain passed, I could less than understand who he was. What he would come to mean to the world and myself. But the sentiment stays true... fantastic minds.
I'm home from college for the summer right now and... it's interesting. I live in a small town in Indiana and with these two greats on my mind, it's been hard to find relatability amongst some of my rather intolerant neighbors. It's sad.
I want to see the world. Taste it. Understand it. All of things I find weird or stupid or scary or beautiful. I want to know them. I want it in my bones! I fear this isn't a universal desire though. I drive around, see the people across town and so many of them feel so stagnant. Content in remaining physically (or mentally) here . Whatever here is to them. And it makes me sad. The (maybe) irrational part of my head is screaming "FUCK! Is this how everyone will be, forever? Is this how I'll end up? Never wanting to try new things, never deviating from a whatever "norm," never loving life - really , loving - like I do now?"
It's scary. Frustrating to see people like this. But I know the world is beautiful. I know I am in love with life. And I know, in my bones, that I am humming. Aching. Screaming, hungry for a piece of the world. One I plan to obtain.
I know that all sounds melodramatic (maybe it is) but it's true. I gotta get out of Indiana. Gotta learn more. Taste more. See more. Fuck more. I gotta live.