- mood thermometer -
dear stranger-friends,
i'm in harlem. staying with a friend with a thousand plants, and a cat that runs back and forth at night, chasing shadows. i wrote about my experience of getting vaccinated in new york, and feeling strangely at home here -- how new york city feels like my parent's house. everyday, i'm observing the fickle nature of my heart, and using a mood thermometer. and. it's springtime in new york. I'm dreaming of gardens with houses in them.
flowers to you,
kening
1 | the vaccine: in new york
a travel letter: on getting the first dose of the vaccine, and feeling at home in new york
2 | the mood thermometer
time required: 10 seconds
instructions for use: anytime you feel like it — in a given day, week, month, year, life — turn inwards and ask yourself: how do I feel right now, on a scale of 1-10? then, share the thermometer with others.
3 | dear kening, who am I?
a note to self for those days when i wake up and can’t remember who i am, why i’m here, and what the hell i’m doing (it happens a lot):
dear kening: you are a seeker of life. beauty. truth. what you offer the world is your way of seeing — being. living. you are a traveler through worlds most people don’t — or cannot go. all those journeys are inward. you visit other dimensions everyday.
4 | the heart is a hard thing to carry
a heart is not an easy thing to take care of. unlike plants or animals or apartments or even bodies.
sometimes, the heart feels like a shadow. a wound that sucks all the light from the sky. other days, it feels like a prison. or a paperweight that weights approximately 10000 pounds, and those are the days you can’t get up and do things.
5 | a chinese wisteria tree
I’m starting a collection of trees I see and love from around the world. this tree is a chinese wisteria tree growing in riverdale, the bronx...
it is the the kind of tree I’d plant for my mother, or my daughter, or my sisters, hugging a house I build for her, with a large window looking into the blossoms every year.
6 | a garden with a house
one day, I would like to have a house which feels more like a garden — where you can sleep and work and live — than a house with a garden as afterthought.
the garden is the house.
the house would be 80% living green things, and 20% functional furniture things.
7 | war movie forest fire
sometimes it feels like there’s a war movie going on in my head - in which someone has set fire to all the trees. what can you do on days like this - except sit by the river, and breathe?
thank you from the top of this crossword puzzle island for reading my weekly digest. write me back anytime.