Dispatch from my continued aerial journey

Spinning is the new black...

Came to this class/sequence/song on a worn-out night, just tired enough to sink into the music and let it carry me.

I've been focused lately on spinning. It makes everything require more strength, to deal with the added forces, and more thinking, to figure out how to work with rather than against those forces as much as possible. 

It's also so much fun (and so much more interesting to watch). Feeling all that force, and being in charge of it, reminds me of the joyful feeling of accelerating on an open freeway - and of course, good music is a must in both scenarios.

Little by little, I continue to piece together a spin technique, and there is everything to love about the process.

Changing of the guard

Thank you, old journal, for your service (April 2023-March 2024). I retire you now, bulging slightly with stickers, to the closet shelf of honor.

Welcome, new journal; I will enjoy your charming Tolkien watercolor cover, your smaller size, and the advantages of a hardcover for writing on public transit. We'll be best friends before I know it.

Black-and-white December

"It's a new year/or about to be..."

(My current earworm.)

I'm looking at some film pics I got back from the lab recently (will share some soon), headphones on, introverting whilst my girlfriend putters around the apartment talking to her mom on the phone. My muscles are pleasingly sore from a class yesterday. We have a bit of joint time off right now. We went to a beautiful public garden today and strolled between botanical continents as the sun passed in and out of cloud cover, the air becoming somuchcolder every time it disappeared.

January is not traditionally a power month for me. I'm feeling a bit of seasonal blues currently and I struggle in general with feeling out of sync with the cultural vibe at this time of year. In November and December, it feels like we're getting it right for the colder darker time of year - focusing on rest, food, loved ones, warmth, coziness, adding beauty and light to our homes. The holidays are overblown and overly stressful for sure, but at their most basic, the priorities feel correct.

Then in January our culture switches abruptly into "GET OFF YOUR ASS and IMPROVE yourself!" mode. I love self-improvement, but it's a bit harsh and it's not what I'm personally feeling at this time of year - I consider winter a success if I keep up most of my existing positive habits and do some things that are interesting to me.

How about you? How are you doing?

Happy New Year to you.

xo

Remember when...I used to share first drafts here?

I was probably having more fun then, so here's a first draft. This is what's been lighting up my brain in new and pleasurable ways this past year. This is nothing planned, just playing amidst the flaws and some spin that I barely know what to do with. No music; added that later. This is my favorite fruit of being willing to be "bad" at something new.