Humans are creatures of habits and rituals, dear wonderers.
We need to assign meaning to our days, gestures, names, and birthdays (among all the other things).
Apparently, for birthdays it all started with the Egyptians — it was a religious practice and a time to ward off evil spirits (or so party blogs say — need some academic references for this one!).
Anyway, as this anthropological study says, for the modern world it is about assigning meaning to time.
Ergo, to mark my 34 Sun return, I’ll leave you with a list of gratitudes, the Kurzgesagt way — What are you grateful for in your life? they ask.
Combined with resources and prompts, the Alice way. In no particular order:
1.
Coffee. My everyday muse, my anchor, my addiction.
2.
Writing. My way of looking at the world and inside me, all the time.
Here’s to journaling as well!
3.
Stories. I don’t know what I would be without all the stories I have read, seen, heard… Maybe even told.
Stories change how we experience reality and how we experience ourselves.
You need to read The Storytelling Animal, just in case :)
4.
Music. I spend most of my time with songs playing in my ears — yay for Bluetooth headsets! I also write with music (my second muse). And yes, I listen to indie pop/rock/folk artists while writing.
Grateful for TIDAL.
5.
Dance. If I said music, then points 5 and 6 are in the same vein > I love dancing ever since I was little. I went dancing with my parents in the summer holidays, we all danced at my birthday parties, then it was dancing in clubs with my friends. Now, it’s mostly dancing in the kitchen. But I do it almost every day.
I also did a hip-hop class this year. So I’ll recommend two of my favourites international dance crews/schools: 1Million and Quick Style.
6.
Singing. I used to do it in an organized manner (choir, competitions, and all that jazz). Now it’s mostly in my house and at karaoke :))
Here’s the guy with the most impressive voice range that we know of in the history of modern music.
7.
Creativity.
A few hours ago I discovered this idea from Alice Edy: “Impostor syndrome is awesome because it means you're playing at the edge of your definitions, rewriting the boundaries of who you are.”
Cheers to my lifelong impostor syndrome then! May I always be reinventing myself. Something that I’m grateful for and hope you are, too.
8.
Intuition. That timid inner voice that guides new perspectives, new ideas, new visions. Grateful for it every time.
And the “science” behind it, explained.
9.
Family, friends, dear people.
My 28 y.o. gratitude list says it better. I re-read it and cried a little. Still super grateful for all the people in my life.
Instead of a conclusion, a poem:
LOVE AFTER LOVE
by Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.