Dear J, how I hear you on the routine: to hate and yet need and appreciate. How it's hard to distinguish between a groove and a rut. I'm more than twice your age, and much more physically able, yet we're still linked by these thoughts. I've outlived many friends, nearly all relatives, am alone very often, so there's a small degree of isolation in these thoughts, too. But I'm so grateful for your holy, yes, they are, words. Thank you.
Thank you for this, J. For making these Bimblings part of your paced routine. For sharing and spreading hope. Because you do. I have to pace in a similar way, but in the back of my head sits my single-parent mum, petrified of being judged for having a unkempt house. And with that voice unchecked I can spend all my activity time in cleaning and tidying (moving piles of crap from one surface to another in reality). Thank you for reminding me that my Basics needs to include creativity.
Great to come back to this. We can all get a bit carried away with trying to keep up with someone else's idea of what we should or should not be doing. For me, I have my own essentials: yoga, getting outside, making some artwork, and most recently I've come back to journalling and am figuring out what this looks like for me now (possibly two things - notes and art journals). those essentials are anchoring and sometimes really annoying! Sometimes at the same time.
Wow, this esssay struck a chord with me-- it is beautifully written and so true to how my life is as well, but you've put it in a way I hadn't grasped before. This is the first thing I've read by you so I'm not sure exactly what your health situation is (apologies for that), but I live with a pretty debilitating chronic illness and constantly have to narrow down what the essentials really are. I'm a rigid/perfectionist kind of person and also someone who struggles with executive function so that combo makes it really hard sometimes to stay grounded and focused rather than getting distracted checking every email or reading every article or starting yet another project that I sadly just don't have the capacity for.
Someone read my own essay about living with chronic illness and recommended your substack and I'm so glad they did <3
The first few paragraphs feel so right ... I think, as I read. The rest will just be an expansion on this, I think, as my eyes glide over the final words of the paragraph. But, no ... you go deeper and deeper into The Basics in a way that is so simple, yet so profound and so universal. You say The Basics are different for different people, and yet you touch that chord that reverberates in all of us. Thank you, Josie. A beautiful piece of writing.
So glad writing is one of your basics. Think you get more writing and creating done in your space than I manage with greater physical space. Something for me to ponder.
Dear J, how I hear you on the routine: to hate and yet need and appreciate. How it's hard to distinguish between a groove and a rut. I'm more than twice your age, and much more physically able, yet we're still linked by these thoughts. I've outlived many friends, nearly all relatives, am alone very often, so there's a small degree of isolation in these thoughts, too. But I'm so grateful for your holy, yes, they are, words. Thank you.
“How we spend our days of course is how we live our lives” Annie Dillard
Thank you for this, J. For making these Bimblings part of your paced routine. For sharing and spreading hope. Because you do. I have to pace in a similar way, but in the back of my head sits my single-parent mum, petrified of being judged for having a unkempt house. And with that voice unchecked I can spend all my activity time in cleaning and tidying (moving piles of crap from one surface to another in reality). Thank you for reminding me that my Basics needs to include creativity.
Great to come back to this. We can all get a bit carried away with trying to keep up with someone else's idea of what we should or should not be doing. For me, I have my own essentials: yoga, getting outside, making some artwork, and most recently I've come back to journalling and am figuring out what this looks like for me now (possibly two things - notes and art journals). those essentials are anchoring and sometimes really annoying! Sometimes at the same time.
Wow, this esssay struck a chord with me-- it is beautifully written and so true to how my life is as well, but you've put it in a way I hadn't grasped before. This is the first thing I've read by you so I'm not sure exactly what your health situation is (apologies for that), but I live with a pretty debilitating chronic illness and constantly have to narrow down what the essentials really are. I'm a rigid/perfectionist kind of person and also someone who struggles with executive function so that combo makes it really hard sometimes to stay grounded and focused rather than getting distracted checking every email or reading every article or starting yet another project that I sadly just don't have the capacity for.
Someone read my own essay about living with chronic illness and recommended your substack and I'm so glad they did <3
I love these "Holy words"as Liz called them.
I love your reading them to me/us. A meditation in itself. Thank you Josie for your discipline in Bimbling.
I once heard a line "Discipline is the interface between responsibility and freedom". Seems to me you've found the rhythm.
Love and blessings to you and yours.💚
The first few paragraphs feel so right ... I think, as I read. The rest will just be an expansion on this, I think, as my eyes glide over the final words of the paragraph. But, no ... you go deeper and deeper into The Basics in a way that is so simple, yet so profound and so universal. You say The Basics are different for different people, and yet you touch that chord that reverberates in all of us. Thank you, Josie. A beautiful piece of writing.
So glad writing is one of your basics. Think you get more writing and creating done in your space than I manage with greater physical space. Something for me to ponder.
Thank you. You have so much wisdom to share. Only 11 months into this new world of stillness, I have so much to learn.
Thank you for writing this Josie. I love the image of “a lapping, rocking peace” - beautiful x
I can relate to this so much! Thank you for sharing