⊃ ∇ ⊙ Ask more questions. Waste less.
When was the last time you noticed the rhythm of your breath?
When did you last check-in, a brief pause, to just be really aware of yourself in the situation you find yourself in?
When was the last time you didn’t waste the present moment with thoughts about later, tomorrow and further ahead still or yesterday, last week, even last year and before that?
Updated 14 July 2022 – Original post from 22 November 2019
Who’s in the driving seat?
Since birth, almost everything we have learned through media, marketing and industry has been to program us, to take from us, in energy and finance. Aren’t you truly tired of it all?
The current system is organised to provide us with an illusion of choice, an end goal of material possession and ego recognition that keeps the greedy wheels of our industrial, colonialist society turning on autopilot. What happened to us?
Updated 6 October 2022 – Original 19 November 2019
Memories of a place not yet destroyed by mankind 🌲
“I did not give to anyone the responsibility for my life. It is mine, I made it. And can do what I want to with it. Live it. Give it back, someday, without bitterness, to the wild and weedy dunes.”
Mary Oliver
“She is learning
@danica.gim
to see the beauty
in the waiting,
in the failing,
in the letting go.”
Updated 4 August 2022 – Original 13 November 2019
Do you eat American Express?
Plastic is everywhere, killing wildlife and polluting our beautiful places, but even if you couldn’t care less about any of that, did you know that we humans, yes even you, are actually ingesting about the equivalent of a credit card in microplastic EACH week? Mostly through water but also beer and seafood and all other manner of things you probably wouldn’t even imagine.
Although we can easily ignore the state of things from our positions of comfort and privilege, do we really want to be consuming this amount of hormone-disrupting, disease-causing chemicals every week until we die? What about our children? Our pets? Not really.
Updated and translated from French 17 July 2022 – Original post 11 November 2019
Named the ‘Singular almost-Island’ because of the vast swathes of water surrounding it, Sete has incubated great artists such as Paul Valery, George Brassens, Jean Vilar or Manitas de Plata.
Without forgetting the latest insult of the new generation of “stars” from Demain Nous Appartient – ironically titled ‘Tomorrow is Ours’ – a French soap opera that is increasingly popular with the youth and lobotomised masses still ignorantly hypnotised by their distraction devices and actively destroying their own tomorrow – *sips tisane*.
Aside from the context in which I was spending it, I was lucky to have passed many a sunny school holiday here. Learning to sail on the saltwater etang, appreciating la belle vie in harmony with nature, frolicking in the waves of the Mediterranean sea. Basically making fond childhood memories amongst a stunning backdrop, as kids did before all the screens took over.
Sète has always been a special place, I’m not aware of a single person that knows it and hasn’t fostered a deep love for it. Attractive for the year-round sunshine with a unique and colourful mish-mash of cultures coming together in a quirky symphony under the Mont Saint-Clair.
Understandably then that it’s an increasingly sought-after destination, nicknamed ‘The Venice of Languedoc’ because of the canals that run through the town and its particularly privileged situation on the Cap of the Golfe du Lion. Surrounded by vast stretches of fine, sandy beaches and with many renowned cultural events taking place throughout the year that draw even more great artists and their devoted followers.
Today I’m not here to sell you a desire to visit but to show you another side to the quaint picture-perfect postcard images. A reality that is actually present in most places for those willing to look.
Continue reading “Ici Sete”
Making changes 🐛.
You might not want to.
It might seem like a huge effort.
Daunting, anxiety-provoking, long and pointless.
The path of change is seldom explored.
Continue reading “Making Changes”
Focus on what you can change. 💙
It can be difficult to see outside of ourselves and our little world.
We become so focused on the limitations we are personally experiencing.
We cannot, or might not want to, feel and see the pain others are experiencing.
Yet when we actively do something kind for someone else or something good for the environment (and expect nothing in return). The negative thoughts we have on the current state of affairs leave space for positivity, inspiration and love.
It’s too easy to worry, stress or get angry about things that are actually out of our control, but it won’t achieve much unless we can successfully convert these emotions into action.
A skill many of us need to hone, otherwise, we feel overwhelmed. This pushes us into a state of self-imposed ignorance and inaction in a bid to cope with the uncomfortable truths our existence stirs up.
Instead, we can try focusing our energy on identifying the things that are within our control and taking little but conscious steps to improve them. Remember this quote by Lao Tzu, “knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.”
You can heal yourself. 💙
Text inspired by a piece on @dailymudras
Post updated 30 August 2022 – Original post 29 October 2019
One that is not in harmony with nature, is not in harmony with themselves.
“In our busy modern lives, it’s easy to forget that we are a part of nature.
Sandy Sitron
We know that vibrant green vistas soothe us. Vast wilderness inspires us.
The limitless clusters of stars in the night sky fill us with aching wonder. And yet it’s easy to feel detached from it all.”
However detached we become, we must not forget that without nature there is no life. Without life, there is no you and without you there is nothing.
Everything is everything and everything is nature.
Are you making time to reconnect with that forgotten part of you, to appreciate it and protect it? 🌱
The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the (egocentric) self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.
Albert Einstein
Be humble enough to know you’re not better than anyone else and wise enough to know you’re different from everyone else.
Amit Sodha