'It took me years to dance here - in my own skin for whole minutes without needing another'
Reading corner
Spare me this love for family tonight
After Zeina Hashem Beck
By Urvashi Bahuguna
This thigh- slicked birthing, this remembering what they once
looked like tonight. This cloning of red blood cells, this love
for ties and forgiveness tonight. I know people who go months
without thinking of, let alone reaching for their folks. Let's dance
alone a little, let's rub coconut oil into our scalps & roots tonight.
Spare me anything closer than a friend tonight. Habiba, love me
some other time. I can waltz by myself tonight, lead and follow
with two feet tonight. As the kids says, I can walk & chew gum
at the same time. Oh, habiba, don't mistake this for loneliness
& extend me a little pity. Not tonight. Don't be afraid if I can dance
& weep at the same time, if I can sweep crumbs & sing.
God will smite me into crescents for these lines, but I could spare
even my lover tonight. Let's drink a little, it took me
years to dance here - in my own skin for whole minutes
without needing another and with age, habiba, with time,
jaaneman, the minutes only grow, only multiply.
[Excerpted with permission from Terrarium by Urvashi Bahuguna]
Healing notes It has been one of those weeks when I sit down to reflect and I am not sure what happened to the entire week. Did I work? Did I sleep through it all? Did I just miss it? I'm not sure. Weeks like this have been a common occurrence in my life these past few years but I always hope that they never happen or I completely forget the probability of spending a week tending to my body's energy. Letting myself recuperate without being too mad at it for needing all those extra hours of sleep. As someone who is used to being active or energetic, I never really feel okay sleeping through my day. But I try to focus on the fact that sleep keeps coming and I am still not feeling energetic after. The one thing I have gotten good at doing is playing this power down music before bed. It's such a calm feeling of drifting off into stillness. Of just focussing on tunes and letting my mind slowly unwind. If nothing else, it is twenty minutes of calm before sleep. What do you do when you are tired? What is it you say to yourself to keep from getting restless? What are the magic words that calm you down and let you tend to your body? Cause tend we must. <3
Food experiments
Chicken breast
300 gms chicken (boneless)
Garlic
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Mirchi powder
Butter
Marinate the chicken breast in lemon, garlic, salt, pepper, mirchi powder for an hour.
After this, melt butter in a pan. Roast the marinated chicken. If need be, add more garlic. Let it cook for 5-10 minutes.
Add more masala if you need. I just let it cook in the marinade :) And ready to eat!
Dear you,
February flew by so quickly. Hope you have a good couple of weeks ahead <3
Love, kindness and warmth,
Nidsitis
'I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?' - Rainer Maria Rilke