Tuesday, October 24, 2023

a personal pause

In retrospect, I was unraveling a bit last week. I found Chiconky's advice, in particular the bit about how, "You don't have to bear witness to everything to hold sacred what is happening" so incredibly comforting. That coupled with my need to focus on making sure Big A had the best 50th celebration I could give him really helped me pause the spiral.

So a personal pause. In the lead up to Big A's birthday, I also bypassed the whole navaratri business/busy-ness, and instead of a multi-day celebration where I dressed everyone in saris, we did nothing... and I missed all the visits to other people's golus because we were away this weekend. There's always next year!

And we usually decorate for Halloween in the week after Big A's birthday, but I think I might just skip it this year because I'm off to a conference in a couple of days (and I don't like looking at scary things anyway!).

Pic: Big A and I walked over to the Wharton for a David Sedaris reading and it was delightful. (The weather was such a balmy 72 degrees.)  It was a full house. I kept thinking how much Nicole enjoys Sedaris and wished she could have been there too! Sedaris is a terrific reader and my favorite bit was a new piece where Sedaris reworked a banal Chat GPT essay written in "his" style, amping up the banality and incongruity.

6 comments:

Nicole said...

Oh, a Sedaris reading! How delightful. I am smiling so hard right now.
I think you really needed this pause. We don't have to do everything, witness everything (excellent advice!), or be everything. Sometimes it's okay just to be.

Gillian said...

Nice.

StephLove said...

We will decorate extra for you.

Safe travels!

NGS said...

I went to a Sedaris reading many years ago and he was delightful and generous with his time! He seems like a really nice guy.

maya said...

Nicole <3
Gillian, Thanks!

Thanks, StephLove! I'd love to see pictures!

NGS--He WAS very generous with his time. The event was supposed to be 90 mins long--he read for all of those 90 mins and then took so many questions after that.

Chiconky said...

I love all of this! Happy birthday and I’m so jealous that you got to see Sedaris! And I vote to skip the decorations. I did last year and it was needed. This year I have a 12 foot skeleton so…balance :)

going on 17

Nu turns 17 tomorrow and they have plans with friends, so we had our family celebration today with pizza, cake, and presents. Nu rarely want...