Wednesday, March 30, 2011

SELF, Day Twenty: Snog This




Pic is most obviously mine...taken at Treacle on Columbia Road
Keep Calm and Carry On, shall we?



"Snogging" means kissing here.

I'm just saying.

My head was still killing me and I needed conditioner (after buying two shampoos on my last shop). Solution? A wash and blow out at the salon next door. They give Korea-styles head massages, and I asked for an extra long one. Plus my hair looked way better after she was done with it ;)

Does my head feel better?

Check.

I'll take one.

Thought of today: sometimes when things are so overwhelming, we live in the future to avoid the present. We cling to what will happen later because it's the same sort of thing as what's happened before. We will see our friends, reunite with family, vacation somewhere that has a beach, or eat the food that brings us comfort (need I remind you of the countdown out of Korea that lasted a whopping 156 days? I didn't think so).

Similarly when things are mundane and a little dull, it's also easy to live in the future. When my classes are just annoyingly long, I think of how I'll feel to see my Mummy again in a few days!

I tend to live in the past as well. I dwell on how much fun I had at Katie's apartment in SK...how nice it was to wake up with Michelle or Kara on my plastic couch and lounge on the weekends over umpteen pots of coffee...how special the relationship was that I fostered with Matt over the year: how special he became to me and how important he continues to be (though he never calls me). ;) I think about those things because they are relationships, experiences, a home I don't have anymore. Though the tendency to well up with emotion at the thought of my house on Duke Street has dwindled, it has been replaced with a longing for a different, more recent past, of days gone by.

But I have to grasp the here and now: see the March sun for all it's worth; cold weather and all. I have to see the beauty in the spring blossoms (despite the fact that they make my face hurt) and notice how much more chipper people are when they can shed their winter garb and put on something white for a change.

There are little miracles happening every single day. Today I helped a kid in year seven write a test. I thought he'd give me answers that were garbled and nonsensical. Instead, he floored me with a keen knowledge of negative numbers and a startling ability to use the tools he had around him to help him through topics about which he was not so sure. Amazing, right?

This is an on-going theme for me: the notion that living in the present is an all-encompassing challenge. I'm trying, folks...and really loving the journey.




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