Hello wildflowers,
I promised I will be back in your inbox in May. I know I know, it’s the last day of May but it’s still May, right? It’s 4:02 PM (my usual afternoon tea-time but today I am sipping on ginger beer that’s almost warm now, while I write this letter to you).
I have steered away from the hustler mindset for years now, rejecting a culture of false urgency, built to ruin our personhood. However, with the acceptance of a slow(er) life, it is very easy to settle into complacency. So often jostle with this idea of balance. Writing this newsletter today is me pushing myself towards consistency, at my own pace. As the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa writes —
O snail,
climb Mount Fuji,
but slowly, slowly!
Now it is not a coincidence that I stumbled upon this adorable animation of a snail on paper by Austin Kleon. He says — Snails are great mascots for idleness, taking your time, and going at your own pace. But there’s also something about snails that I think might be even more profound for artists: They leave a trail behind them of where they’ve been.
Recommendations Corner
Fun (and sometimes offbeat) travel experiences, meaningful films, shows, books that I enjoyed as well as poetry that made its way to me.
Travel
Let me give you a little peek into a day in my life in Bir:
7 am: Wake up to the cacophony of birds, go out for a misty morning stroll
9 am: Breakfast with the gorgeous view of the mountains and dogs sleeping in the cafe garden
11 am: Walk back to the room, looking at the cerulean blue sky, collecting wildflowers on the way
1:30 pm: Head out for a lunch of thukpa and Tibetan po cha (savoury butter tea made with yak milk)
3:30 pm: Shop for souvenirs (I bought incense sticks, local tea, buransh wine, and magnets of course) in the local market
4:45 pm: Walk to a local coffee roasters for a cuppa. Buy Pahadee coffee beans, sip on coffee while enjoying my Jane Austen colouring book
5:30 pm: Walk back to my room, play with puppers on the street, watch a glorious sunset against the backdrop of a monastery as paragliders fly about in the vibrant sky
8 pm: Head to the local pizzeria for dinner and live music. Meet the fluffiest and greediest mountain dog at the cafe
9:30 pm: Stop for a cup of the most dense and delicious hot chocolate on the way back
10 pm: Come back to the room and get the most sound sleep
Read
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Excerpt from Sam Anderson walking the route of The Old Leatherman:
“Right away, walking made me feel better. Every morning, when I stepped onto the road, I got a little less angry. It’s easy to hate the world when it’s just an abstraction that lives in your phone. It’s harder when you are out there in it, really looking, interacting. Tiny moments felt hugely healing.”
Watch
A Man on the Inside: Ted Danson as a cool (read cute) unassuming spy — enough said!
Wildflower of the day: Vigna caracalla aka snail vine
is a rapid-growing twining perennial vine in the pea family that is native to tropical areas of Central and South America. It is evergreen in frost free climates. The species name caracall is a corruption of the Portuguese caracol, meaning snail. It is noted for producing an ornamentally attractive July to October bloom of white and lilac-purple (sometimes marked with yellow and cream) spirally twisted flowers that curl in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a snail’s shell. Flowers are highly fragrant.
Wish you slowness and stillness in this ever moving world 🐌
My recent post started very similarly hahaha, happy June!