Wax On, Wax Off

It’s a heavy, sideways rain with the occasional clap of thunder. The room is dark save the lamp overhead and I can’t help feeling that the metaphor from Tai Chi has continued with me home.

Leave the things of the old year behind that no longer serve us, washing them away as we prepare to enter a new year, welcoming light and love.

Just Keep Swimming

I'm closing out the year with Tribe of Memoirs:  Short Life Advice from the Best in the World.   Ferriss compiled a list of 11 questions and this book is a compilation of over 100 different responses from a variety of his contacts in a wide range of professions.  It's been wonderful to read a chapter or three in the quiet moments of these last days of 2019 and I already have a host of highlights:  new words, quotes, new books for my list, and reminders of things I already knew to be heart-truths.

Ferriss is known for his book 4-Hour Workweek and several other "4-Hour" category books.  Maybe one of these will make my reading list one day, but I came to Ferris through a Ted Talk and after a few minutes of watching, felt a connection with this (at the time) 31 year old person who had just learned to swim while also having picked up a new language and the tango.*

I was a little older than Mr. Ferriss when I took the plunge (literally) into swimming.  I can vividly remember the first lessons:  1) standing in the pool while trying to put my face in the water 2) floating for one hour and then 3) the little by little improvements that came before 4) losing my swimsuit top in the pool and then 5) starting to overcome the fear again.

I have an abundance of gratitude for the patience of my first teacher.  A NASA engineer, he broke swimming into science and engineering, a language that was as familiar and comforting to me.  We talked about propulsion and Archimedes' screw.  We also talked about fear and how slowing down was the best way for me to control it.

So as I make my lists for 2020 with items out of my current comfort zone, I am thinking about "sisu":

The best way I can describe the feeling is a Finnish word, "sisu"- the mental strength to continue to try even after you feel you've reached the limits of your abilities.  I don't think failure is sometimes part of the process- it always is.  When you feel you can't go on, know that you're just getting started. - Kyle Maynard, Tribe of Mentors, (p. 15)

*Cue person who is still pretty recent to life in Argentina.

Esperando con esperanza

Twas a few nights before Christmas
y por toda la casa,
only one creature was stirring,
haciendo una masa.

Las botas son colgadas,
the music was festive,
la noche más larga del año,
The sunset suggestive

Of good things to come
y nuevas aventuras en frente
Of love, of travel, of baking
y paz por un mundo de gente.

Southern Hemisphere

After three years, the air conditioner is no longer a juxtaposition to the Christmas tree.

Fresh fruit pies are now a tradition.

So are ice cream and Christmas stockings.

Two weeks to Christmas and I'm watching my balcony garden grow.

Star Struck

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vander was a surprisingly fun read.  An Amazon First Reads from February, it was a book I did not want to put down once I had started it.  It also was a book that made me want to read the last chapter to see if I would like the ending.  (I am glad I didn't do that, though I did read the last chapter a second time after finishing the book.)

Ursa and Jo are positioned to be a good team from the onset.  The other characters make their entrances in their quirky, awkward ways, a lens into their personalities.  There are parts of each that are likable and not, the way we humans are.  Forgiveness, friendship, and love were big themes for me from the book.  You will want to know more about Ursa.  You will like the Egg Man.  And who knows?  You might just be more compassionate to someone who is rough around the edges.