The Silver Lining

Hi, All!

How are you? ☁️

Ever since G and I moved to Singapore, we said that we just needed to go travel whenever city life would get to us. Then 2020 happened, and that wasn’t an option anymore.

Our initial response was to escape for good, but our landlord held on to our contract, and so we stayed.

Not wanting to feel trapped in a city, we once chose ourselves; we promised each other to enjoy the situation—a promise which in time let me see the silver lining of not having left.

Staying in Singapore allowed me to settle into a new job and provided the calm I needed to develop my coding skills.

I had ample time to focus on the recovery of my knee injury, which also led me to spend more time in the pool and the sun–a luxury I’m sure I won’t always have. In turn, I committed to getting more comfortable in the water. And I learned about patience, healing, and to be kinder to my body, myself.

I deepened a new, valuable friendship. G and I became regulars at our favorite cafes and restaurants and fostered those tiny bonds that nurture one’s soul. I felt less a foreigner than ever and learned it was in my control to make a place a home.

The Marina Bay became my go-to for a morning walk, a stroll that treated me to meaningful insights each day. I started not caring about the things the concrete jungle was missing, and instead, looked forward to the hues the weather would turn the skies into the next day. And without the tourists and the crowds, I experienced the bay as many never will, and it even became one of my meditation spots. Then one day, a short story of fiction crept into my mind with the bay as the backdrop, a keepsake like no other by which to remember this time.

Through the cracks of the routine I build up in these few months, the unknown patterns that I was afraid of, the ones I no doubt would’ve buried by traveling or a spontaneous but chaotic decision to move back surfaced. And what they taught me isn’t that I have nothing to run away from, but that there isn’t anything that I could ever solve in flight. And more, that it’s in a standstill too, that I might catch a silver lining dissolve a cloud.

Words

Happily Ever After – My yearly tiny love note to G

Code

Mid-June, I started working on a recipe app. I wanted a place where I could collect all my recipes. The unwritten dishes from my mom’s kitchen, the ones I created, stole and adapted, and was gifted.

It was very much a personal project until my friends got involved. They are the main reason why I get to share it with you today. Here’s the very first version of Neo’s Tree.

If you’re tempted to create your own profile and add a recipe, let me know. I’d love to do it together over a (virtual) chat and a coffee, or a good glass of wine.

Quote I’m Pondering

You’re not required to save the world with your creativity. Your art not only doesn’t have to be original, in other words, it also doesn’t have to be important. –Elizabeth Gilbert

With love,
And a wish for you to be well, happy, healthy, and free from suffering,
Mirha
🌤