Rollercoasting through life

Welcome to Day 3 of 100 Day Writing Challenge.

A hill I will die on: life is designed to be a rollercoaster. It’s literally unavoidable that it will be a cycle of ups and downs. Some downs can be traumatic (unexpected death of a loved one) or much less extreme (a bumper bashing, an argument with your loved one, traffic). The ups also have a vast range, from exhilarating (birth of your child) to a bit of fun (call with your best friend, unexpected flowers).

If you are trying to optimise for a perfect, stable life you’re wasting your time. No such thing exists. Whatever the circumstances, if life is not moving you up and down emotionally, it simply means you’re bored. And even then, reality will soon catch up with you. In other words, there is no point in asking why life is so hard. It’s like asking why water is wet. It just is. Part of its inherent make-up.

For sure, some cycles are more brutal than others. But even the cycles are themselves cyclical. You might be going through hell right now, and when you get through it you will have some respite, where the “bad stuff” will be relatively mild. But rest assured, the brutality is coming around again.

So when you’re in a down (as I am now, temporarily) ask yourself: how deep is this down? Could it have been worse? Chances are, yep it could be. In which case…ride the down, and wait for the inevitable up. It’s coming. (And don’t forget to savour it when it arrives!)

Thanks for reading

Lost dogs, scary movies and photography

Welcome to Day 3 of the 100 Day Challenge, and happy Halloween!

I fell asleep watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice last night, but caught up this evening. I didn’t fall asleep because the movie was bad, but because I was exhausted. It has been a strange week, where I have been busy, but not productive. It’s annoying, and it needs to change.

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I think I am becoming addicted to walking! Six months ago I did zero exercise, but this week I have already walked 15km and am craving more. It’s now also my go-to methodology for quick problem solving. When I am stuck on something, I want to just put on my trekking shoes and go walk it out. It works. I walk to music, a podcast or just silence, depending on my mood and the goal. I find it a perfect time to get lost in daydreams, and hopes for an ideal future. I try to take at least some of my walking time to imagine living my perfect day, and hope that that helps it manifest soon!

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I rescued a dog from certain death today. It ran out the gate as the owner was driving out, and followed the car down a very busy road. The owner was oblivious to the whole thing, but luckily I managed to coax the dog into my car before it was driven over. The owner literally cried at handover. My good deed for the day.

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I need to up my photography! This needs to be a two-prong approach. first, I need to take more photographs. I should probably set myself a goal of taking 10 photos per day, at least. Secondly, I need to know how to make them good! Right now they are pathetic at best, and that doesn’t help with content creation. I am going to try to do better tomorrow. And while I am at it, I might as well also take some selfies. I have so few photographs of myself.

Thanks for reading,

Thanks for reading

I am tired (2/100)

Welcome to Day 2 of 100 Day Writing Challenge!

I had a very strange evening last night. I found a burst of energy from somewhere, and stayed up working till 3am. It felt like a tremendously clever life hack at the time, but of course I am paying the price for it today. It is 7:30pm, and I am tired. Can’t got to bed though, because I have my weekly movie date with my Swiss friend, and today we are watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in light of it being Halloween tomorrow.

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I am working on an essay about love, which I hope to have posted by the end of the week. Love has been a lot on my mind, between my friends’ adventures and my own new relationship. I have always known that I have a very specific, unusual take on romance, love, relationships and partnerships but it is only recently that I have embraced my unique approach. I thought I would put down in writing, but as soon as I tried I realised I am not nearly as clear on my dating philosophy as I thought I was. Writing is really the gift that keeps on giving, though. The more I wrote and refined the essay, the more insight I was able to gather, and the clearer I became about my relationship goals. Writing that essay was like a month of Sundays in therapy. Highly recommend writing about things you are not totally clear about. I will post the essay on this blog soon (I hope).

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I am having a self-discipline problem, but I am not going to be too harsh on myself because I am only working on 3 hours of sleep today. But tomorrow better be a productive, stellar day because I seem to have taken much more time off work this week than time spent actually working.

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I went to my local market this past Saturday and spent some time browsing through the used book stall. I didn’t buy anything (too many unread books!) but I was taken down memory lane by many of the books displayed. Some of these were mega bestsellers when I was a kid (such simpler times!). These days I don’t read nearly enough books, but that doesn’t mean I have lost my love for them. I am still torn about whether I want a mega floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in my house. On the one hand, it collects dust and no-one re-reads books. Plus it will cost a fortune to actually fill it. On the other hand…books!

Thanks for reading,

Thanks for reading