Wonderful day, amici.
Today I’m opting for a little nostalgia. Scrolling through my gallery, I’m reminiscing about brighter times. So many happy faces. It’s wonderful. You can tell the evolution of this shitty pandemic scrolling through my phone. Starting mid-February, the accumulation of memes, videos and screenshots of Instagram-posts ridiculing corona (at the very beginning at least) skyrockets up to this very moment, only now there is no further “playing corona down” going on any longer.
I’ve decided to dedicate today to improve my Turkish and continue working on my book. Certainly, I won't be starting any of these activities on an empty stomach. May I invite you to one typical breakfast à la Sandra? (I cannot live up to Turkish kahvalti-standards, but I do have some extra sugar at hand...:))
Ingredients: 2 boiled eggs, toast with rosehip jam, a cup of coffee and some eye-candy. I’ve discovered a Netflix series that I downloaded onto my phone. It’s called “TOY BOY”. (and thank me later, ladies!) Let’s all take a minute and appreciate the blessings spread upon handsome living beings like the ones acting in this series. Joyful, Joyful morning to me.
2:20 pm: My thoughts have taken a drastic turn compared to this morning. The news is quite bad. Italy reported 425 deaths within 24h. In France doctors now have to decide on whom they would and whom they would not treat since the capacity of hospitals has been exceeded. I do not even want to think about the repercussions such kind of decisions must have on one’s psychological state.
Other than that my thoughts on hostility and human nature are spilling over.
I can’t grasp how in times of hardship like this people do not seem to have the least damn empathy. Of course, we are not generalizing, but still, some people really cannot help it. This Tunisian lady was saying: “at least we will die in our homeland, whilst you guys will be thrown into the fire directly” (addressing Tunisian nationals living in Italy).
I wonder if she even realizes to what degree this is macabre. It’s next level. Honestly. I cannot even find the words.
On a positive note, Kevin Hart has started a series of stand-up comedy live-streams on his Instagram making people laugh. I love the guy. I love him, thanks for that.
I’m back in the basement. Wi-Fi does not reach the basement… I do have mobile data but even that does not properly work. My messages are sent and received only when leaving the basement and walking up to the water tower in front of our house which I refrain from doing since it is raining cats and dogs right now and I kind of enjoy staying inside, inside of my heated room, writing and reading. Leafing through some old books, I found a love letter inside of “A thousand splendid suns” by Khaled Hosseini. I had never seen it. The guy must have hidden it in there, hoping I would find it… in 2014… Never did. Another love story missed.
I’m smiling at the pictures and posters that I have glued to my walls sometime in the past - feels like centuries ago. I see faces of people that I have not talked to for a very long time and I wonder how we lost one another, I mean not literally lost, but you know. Contact decreases, you stop being a part of each other’s life and so on.
Enough nostalgia already. Let’s add some more positivity to this: NATURE is recovering.
“Since the lockdown: Venice’s canals have become crystal clear. Italy's coasts have dolphins coming nearer and nearer. Japan now has deer roaming free in the streets and Thailand: the same with monkeys. China has record-breaking pollution cuts. The Earth has already begun showing signs of amazing things that are happening thanks to the absence of human pollution.” This may be an opportunity for humanity to start on a greener foot, being more environmentally conscious, since what is being witnessed in the span of only a couple of days is amazing.
6:00 pm:
Remember my “whirling dervish” necklace? I found the note that came with it and since the words are so beautiful and presently important to live by, I thought I’d share them with you.
Seven bits of Advice by Hz. Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi:
1. “Either exist as you are or be as you look”
2. “In generosity and helping others, be like a river”
3. “In compassion and grace, be like the sun”
4. “In concealing others fault, be like the night”
5. “In anger and fury, be like the dead”
6. “In modesty and humility, be like the earth”
7. “In tolerance, be like the sea.”
It is scientifically recognized that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no being or object that does not revolve because all beings are comprised of electrons revolving around protons and neutrons in atoms. Everything revolves and the human being lives by means of the revolution of bold in his body, by the revolution of the stages of his life, by his coming from the earth and his returning to it. However, all of these revolutions are natural and unconscious. But the human being possesses a mind and intelligence which distinguishes him from other beings. Thus, the “Whirling Dervish or Semazen” intentionally and consciously participates in the showed revolution of other beings.
I hope this makes sense to all of you, if it does not, so be it. I love these words. We are whirling around right now, just like the whirling dervishes. It already feels like we are in trance. I hope that at some point we will reach a complete standstill, so things could continue evolving, revolving and whirling around at a normal pace. And hopefully, then, it’ll be an unconscious process again, since right now the peaceful process of whirling is becoming some kind of a mad rollercoaster.
Recommendation at this point: If you guys are not familiar with RUMI, change that. Read Rumi and some works on Sufism. I highly recommend it.
“Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”
- Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century