Counting the Bounty
Hi, All!
How are you? 🍁
In the Northern hemisphere, we’re nearing the season of the harvest. It’s the time when people take stock of their crops and begin preparations for quieter times.
It’s also the season of giving thanks, and the months in which nature winds down and changes dramatically.
Singapore is in the northern hemisphere, but only a few degrees north of the equator, which means that the palm trees will keep their tropical greens. Nevertheless, I still love bringing all the other autumnal rituals into my days.
The first thing I’m doing is taking a few days off. It’s something I’ve been putting off for months in the hope borders would reopen, but alas.
Second, I’m checking in with myself and looking back at the months that have passed, acknowledging everything I accomplished, and paying tribute to the growth while deemphasizing that which remains undone.
With pondering the good I gained, comes the apparent truth that I’ve had help along the way. So, thirdly, I’m saying thanks and writing notes of appreciation to my favorite people in the world, my mentors, writers I never met, and the brilliant barista in my neighborhood cafe who never fails to put a sun in my head.
Lastly, I’m studying my inner life so that I can make the necessary changes, and leave what doesn’t suit me any longer and keep that what feels right.
Words
I added five new titles to Read 100 Business Books.
- Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
- The Getaway Car – Ann Patchett
- Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher & William Ury
- David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
- The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron
Birthday Reflections
To all of you who sent me a birthday letter, thank you again. Your humanity inspires me to soften and look for similarities rather than differences in the people I meet. In return, here are my answers.
What I’m Grateful For
🏴☠️ A small army of intelligent and creative women who care for me and with who I’m fortunate to be standing in the arena.
What I Fear
☁️ To grow more rigid and less forgiving, and to lose my naivety and fearlessness as the years come.
What I’ve Been Putting Off
🖋 Sending my mom a thank you letter
I have a fragile relationship with my mom. She’s overwhelmingly loving but also a little cruel at times. Knowing she’s capable of turning de Vil on me makes me careful to praise her. That said, if I don’t take the risk, I might regret not having told her about all the good I get from her while she’s still alive.
What I’m Reading
🔖 My reading is all over the place at the moment. I’m flipping cookbooks, essays, poetry, and since recently, fiction again. Here are a few titles from my imaginary bookshelf, which I’m currently reading, or have recently finished:
- The Flavor Bible, My Mexico City Kitchen (Cooking)
- The Boys of My Youth (Essays)
- Neverwhere, Ready Player One (Fiction)
- The Captain’s Verses (Poetry)
What Inspires Me
🖤 The social movements Me Too, Black Lives Matter, and No Ban No Wall. People’s hope for change, and their courage to fight for rights they shouldn’t have to argue for in the first place, are a powerful reminder not to squander my privilege and freedom.
Quote That’s Been On My Mind
Stay for some soup you must. –Yoda
May you wallow in the light,
With love,
Mirha
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