I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before. We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed me.
May 14, 2023
Credo che ciò che può cambiare la vita esista sempre al di fuori di noi.
I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel, see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before. We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed me.
February 12, 2023
How much—how little—is within our power.
December 2022 |
In this short lifethat only lasts an hourmerelyHow much — how little —is within our power.
January 29, 2023
Recommendations for Repair
1/1/23 |
- Finding Me by Viola Davis
- The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
- The Old Place by Bobby Finger
- Welcome Home by Najwa Zebian
- One Night on the Island by Josie Silver
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams
- Intimations by Zadie Smith
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Happy to be Here Podcast by Vivian Nuñez
- How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
- You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
- Dream Out Loud: The Sneakerhead’s Path to Redemption by Rikki Mendias and Wendy Adamson
- Mango & Peppercorns: A Memoir of Food, an Unlikely Family and the American Dream by Tung Nguyen, Katherine Manning and Lyn Nguyen
- Pan de limón con semillas de amapola by Cristina Campos
- Due sirene in un bicchiere by Federica Brunini
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- Spiderman: No Way Home
- Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Ecclesiastes, the Dao de Jing, and the Mandukya Upanishad (together)
January 15, 2023
She has been unearthed.
As determined as I feel to read 50 new books this year, I keep thinking about the books I listened to and loved last year. I'd like to revisit them, this time as hard copies with a pencil in hand to underline all of my favorite sentences.
"Beautiful Country" is one; "Olga Dies Dreaming" and "Ghosts" are two others.
I started "Beautiful Country," read by the author, just before my trip to Thailand last April and I took it with me. I listened to the final chapter on our road trip to the island of Koh Chang and got teary while identifying with the emotion of Qian reaching out to her younger self. Many of us still walk with our littler selves within hoping to be acknowledged and freed.
As waves of peace washed over me on Koh Chang, I could feel I was at a turning point. That everything would soon change. I felt confident I'd leave my job within the year but I didn't yet know how. I only knew what awaited me would allow my current self to unfurl and help younger me—bright, joyful, fearless—rise above the heavier parts I carry. More on that some other time, but for now, I am so thankful to Qian and the permission slip her words formed.
January 01, 2023
On giving in to the enchanting promise and possibility of a new year.
photos by Carol Guerrero |
I admit to giving in to the enchanting promise and possibility of a new year. Today, I will gift myself flowers.
On the day after my 33rd birthday, I did a photoshoot themed to "Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches," to commemorate reaching a period in my life I've been dreaming about for years. It wasn't a perfect experience but it still felt momentous. We ended, serendipitously, near Strawberry Fields.
June 19, 2022
But the iron thing they carried, I will not carry.
By Mary Oliver
Today's a hard day for me but instead of succumb to too much sorrow, I intend to spend the day outdoors. I know Mary Oliver would approve and—speaking of—there's a poem I encountered earlier this year, while making my way through Devotions, that stunned me. A new one I'd never read before that I immediately felt in my bones.
Full read in its whole perfect splendor, here.
And it starts with, "Welcome to the silly, comforting poem."
My mother was the blue wisteria,
And towards the end,
and the responsibilities of your life.
June 12, 2022
This year, was I competent? Did I referee my whims or elaborate on them? Did I express gratitude? Feel the potency of night?