Dipping my hands in a cocktail of poetry, piano, planning, podcasts and
much more (Are you in for a tracking challenge this week?)
Hey hey! We are already entering the third week of January and I can't stop but humm Where Does The Time Go from A Great Big World.
How has the new year been treating you?
About the phrase "Eppur si muove"
Approaching 500 years ago, the Italian polymath Galileo had the audacity to posit that the Earth moves around the Sun, not the other way around, as conventional “wisdom” at the time had it.
The apocryphal story goes that he was forced, on pain of death, to recant his heretical proclamation. After he did so, however, he then muttered “Eppur si muove”, or “and yet it moves”.
Neil Gaiman used the phrase in his book 'Art Matters' talking about the truth of ideas and this issue is just about that.
Intrigued about the cover of this post?
It's from Halsey's poetry book - I Would Leave Me If I Could.
2016 - the year I joined college. There's something about music to teleport us to the exact time and location when the song left an impression upon us.
Nothing more nostalgic than music!
2016 was the year of The Chainsmokers and their record breaking song 'Closer' . Halsey was the lead female singer and I would listen it in every party that year. That's how I discovered Halsey and I have been a true fan girl since then.
This week I listened to her podcast on The Arm Chair Expert. In the podcast,
Halsey opens up about being bipolar, the effects of that while being in a relationship with an addict. She reflects on how she used to use her sexuality and how much more empowered her talents make her feel now. She discusses how writing has turned into a tool for exorcising pain, learning about most life experiences through books first.
Although I am not too well verse with the latest pop music, here are my favorites from Halsey:
Without Me (and the more sexier version)
You should be sad (this has gotta be the hottest)
Her book although lush with rhythm feels more like a journal. Nevertheless I admire her for her unapologetic raw and candid personality. She writes:
"A beautiful woman is a car crash.
Shiny asphalt and smoking rubber.
Melted plastic and metal edges.
Glimmering glass shrapnel iridescence
scattered across the road.
Haphazard beauty. Dignified and slightly terrifying."
(This has gotta be my fav. IG post on her feed - who doesn't like dirty humour?!)
While we are at the subject of poems, I read this beautiful poem Possibilities by Wislawa Szymborska (Feel the enigma when Amanda Palmer reads it)
"I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility that existence has its own reason for being."
On the subject of existence, nothing has made me feel more alive than running this week. Started the week by reading this article on the history of women in running. It was the most beautiful thing I have read in along while.
Read it on The Literary Hub
Moving onto real life, I am doing a Tracking challenge this week.
Laura Vanderkam is a psycho about time tracking and she has mentioned it several times on her podcast. Check out this blog for the details.
All you have to do is to note down as frequent as you can about how you spend your time. How many hours do you work, work-out, sleep etc. By maintaining this time log you'll get to know where exactly do you spend your time and maybe down cut a few activities.
I am gonna share my time log analysis next week. Until then, keep tracking.
(The comic strip is from Maria Popova's new post on The Secret to Superhuman Strength: An Illustrated Meditation on the Life of the Body, the Death of the Self, and Our Search for Meaning)
If you feel like reading something on the continuum of business to technology you should subscribe to Scott Galloway's newsletter - No Mercy, No Malice.
Or else if you are bogged down by a lot of household chores this weekend, maybe play Viraaj Arora playing keys in the background.
If the video of this song does not brighten your day, I don't know what will.
Have a great weekend ahead and a great week after :)
Sending power hugs!
Let me know how you track your time and it's analysis.
P.S. : Extremely thankful to all those who replied to the last post. As always, I abstitutely (mandatory Parks and Rec reference) love listening back from you.
Thanks for reading, feel free to reach out :)