another year later and really all that’s changed is i have less hair and a million more wonderful memories. i am grateful to be living a life where aging is (mostly) only hard because i have so much to look back on and miss desperately, and i look forward to more miss-worthy things this next trip around. 🌅🪩💫
thank you @shannoon.oshea for the lovely photo :)
I spent a few months this year feeling smaller and more insignificant than I have in my entire life, and reveling in the absolute freedom of that insignificance. Life is hard and weird but the world is big and has so many rocks to climb!
These are photos of me next to the Old Man of Storr. Thank you @askcoachkenny for the lovely photos and thank you Old Man for the perspective.
a mix of recent photos and recently rediscovered notes app entries
some context, if you’re curious:
2: i arrived on a night bus to Thessaloniki at 5:30 am, leaving me with about 4 hours until i could check into my hostel. i wandered around until i got tired carrying my bag, and found a bench by the water where i could sit and feel placeless in peace.
5: one half of an overheard phone conversation at Spoke Bicycle Cafe. I think about this man from time to time.
7: reflections on the discomfort of growing into yourself
8: foods mentioned in Brian Jacques’ “Redwall” books
some recent goings-on :)
things have been feeling a little wibbly-wobbly lately but as ever there are bright and shiny things ahead as well as plenty behind! onwards we go!
the netherlands really said “🌷🪻🌷🌷💐🪻🌼🌷💐🌼🌷🪻🪻🪻💐🌷💐🌼🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🪻🪻🌷🌷🌼🪻🪻💐🌷🌷🌷🌼🌷🌼💐🪻🪻🌷🪻🪻🪻🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌼🌷💐🪻🪻🌷🌷💐💐🌼🌷💐🪻🌼💐💐🪻🌷🪻🌷💐🪻🪻🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌼🌼🌷🌷🌷🪻💐🌷🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻💐🪻🌷🌷🌷🌷🪻🌼🪻🌷🌼🌼🌷”
This afternoon I got stranded in the most brutal rain while out in the middle of Tempelhofer field. For perspective, the track that encompasses the field is a little under 4.5 miles long. There is nothing out in the middle.
A massive cloud bank rolled in in a matter of minutes. The rain was punishing enough, but the wind made me genuinely despair. Like literal, literary despair. Soaked and freezing helplessness and hopelessness.
But as I was making my miserable way back to the perimeter, the storm passed over me suddenly, and there was this. Immediately: unspeakable, obscene joy - so intense it was shocking to the system. It made me cry. Maybe newborns cry for the same reason? Overwhelmed with the prospect of living.
Tomorrow I turn 25. This makes no sense, because I am both a baby and also the oldest person alive. I do not like birthdays because they remind me that I am not an eternal ball of light floating indefinitely onwards.
However, eternal balls of light do not get to know the feeling of sunlight on frozen skin, and I think that maybe an annual reminder of mortality is a small price to pay for that privilege.
