Hello!
Welcome to Divya Writes, an occasional newsletter about everything and nothing.
Happy New Year! Hope you’ve had a great start to 2021.
On my mind
i.
We experienced an earthquake here on Saturday. It lasted a few seconds but my son and husband did not feel it. I was on our couch and it felt like I was on a fluid surface, like a waterbed, or a wave. I found myself repeating earthquake, earthquake. I say I found myself because the words seem to have escaped my mouth before I had fully registered what was happening. It felt like some part of me was ahead of the rest and my senses weren’t coherent. Like when the subtitles for a video are out of sync. By the time it all came together, by the time my brain had snapped back in place, it was over, the shaking had stopped - leaving me to wonder if I had experienced a giddy spell or the TV and the lamp had in fact wobbled. It left me shaken (shook?). Hehe.
ii.
My son, who usually wakes up around 8 AM, woke up at 6 AM today. Since I’d gone to bed only at 2:30 AM, I woke up feeling like Wile E. Coyote after another unsuccessful attempt at catching the Road Runner. I had two choices - I could spend the day being irritable or I could drink copious amounts of coffee and be a ray of positivity for my family. I chose to be irritable. Sometimes you have to pick the right option, even if it’s the hard one, hard enough to make your family want to avoid you. At least long enough to take a nap.
iii.
I discovered the Bullet Journal method in 2014 and since then I’ve been using it to track my work and personal todos. It’s a system that can work for anyone, without the need for a sophisticated planner. Last week, Ryder Carroll, the creator of Bullet Journal shared a video about five simple tips to start Bullet Journalling in 2021. The tips he shares in the video can be applied to anything really, not just Bullet Journalling. For example, he says, “ The long term impact of doing something rather than nothing cannot be exaggerated. Focus on the compounding effect of incremental change.”
One little step at a time. This is something I’ve learned over and over again as a parent. Little things every day make a lot of difference in the long run. “the goal is to do more than nothing.”
What I’ve been reading
Jayant Kaikini’s No Presents Please. I have four or five stories left in this book and I have loved every single story so far. It’s a translation from Kannada. The stories themselves are very ordinary - nothing really happens, yet so much happens. The writing is so beautiful, the description, the metaphors, the characters, it’s all so real you can’t help holding your breath, wondering what’s going to happen next. With each story, you feel the scene and the characters come alive in front of you. Through this book, you are transported to Mumbai, as a spectator walking through the streets, living and breathing, a part of the story. And when you complete reading it, when you set the book aside, it takes a few seconds to realize that you never really traveled to Mumbai, that you were in your room all along.
Minda Honey’s essay Woman of Color in Wide Open Spaces The essay is about her experience as a woman of color on a road trip from California to Kentucky stopping at various National Parks. It’s an old essay and I read it sometime last year. But it has stayed with me, left me thinking about many things. I keep going back to it.
What I’ve been eating
We got an Instant Pot during the Black Friday sales, after debating about it for two years. I’ve been using it in the place of my pressure cooker and I love not having to count whistles, not worry about turning off the stove, or about adjusting the flame to be just right. I love that I can turn it on even when my son naps. I’ve made a few one-pot meals with it, but so far my favorite is this Instant Pot Mac and Cheese. It’s the easiest and tastiest mac and cheese I’ve ever made.
What I’ve been writing
Since the last newsletter, I wrote three poems and three short essays.
Poems
I wrote about how I spend my time while my son naps and about getting him to wear a pant. I also wrote a poem based on the prompt for a writing contest.
Essays
I wrote about an evening at the park with my toddler, about weaning him off bottles and how it made me feel, and about being present, something my son reminds me about every single day.
You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or on my blog for more of my writing.
Thanks for reading. It means the world to me! Feel free to share with friends and family.
That’s all for now. I will write again soon.