On the last day of May, I had a vague feeling that I was forgetting something… but having spent the last 2+ weeks feeling under the weather, I didn’t think I could’ve mustered anything coherent. So, here’s my compromise :)
I’ve been mulling over life’s maintenance these past few weeks.
The idea (or maybe awareness?) of maintenance has been on my mind ever since I read my friends’, A and L, writing on it about the experience of caring for their land. While my personal ecosystem skews more urban and indoorsy, I often feel impatience to properly care for things, and I have to fight the urge to immediately replace what doesn’t work with something shiny and new—all because I didn’t want to put in the effort.
But for a few different reasons, the apartment I’ve lived in for almost 10 years was in a transitional (/chaotic) state last month, and I truly felt the pain of not having worked through some of those unglamorous tasks earlier.
Beyond our physical spaces, the amount of upkeep required just to be a human in this modern world is wild. Our livelihoods, our daily needs, our bodies, our mental wellbeing, our loved ones, our hobbies, our global footprint—everything. It’s unsurprising that we often feel so busy and burnt out.
My natural instinct in those cases is to guiltily drop the ball on most things to try to keep one thing moving. At its worst, I’ll even drop ALL of the balls and completely shut down. But this month, I’m really trying to see (or maybe I was a bit forced to see) if I can slow down this runaway train and chip away, in small bits, to move the things I care about along in a way that’s more sustainable in the long run. We’ll see.
Since I want to share a little more music, I’m going to leave you with the songs I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks without the usual fanfare. If you’re vibing with any of it, let me know :)