Hopefully Sky

March passed by like a laze. It was time to sloooooow down and take a deep breath. I spent most of my lecture-free days just to catch up with what has been ignored in the first place, and take time to mind the urgent needs that have been crying out for so long. There were days I slept until noon, or had breakfast and read for a while before falling back into a slumber till 3pm. For someone who doesn’t normally sleep much, it clearly dawned on me that my body and spirit were exhaustively deprived of rest, to the extent that they hadn’t fully recovered even after a few weeks. Some time in the middle of the month, I still had to remind myself of taking a break from striving for future happiness and just being perfectly happy at the present moment. With colourful March tulips, rose-scented white tea and time lying under the duvet thinking and letting my imagination go wild.

It was also the month when I tackled the difficulty of fragmented reading. As much as I hated the fact that even a chapter is chopped into a-few-minute chunks between metro stations, I had no better choice but to make use of time available when commuting. Evening time was only for mindless browsing for stimulis on the Internet. Books stack up like growing mountains in my room. After reading I have forgotten how to read by Michael Harris I could no longer hold up the guilt of looking at them lying there, patiently waiting for the promise of being read to be fulfilled. It was time to ‘lock down’ and spend a solid block of time for reading. Admittedly, it was uneasy at first. I was so used to checking here and there, roaming from this FOMO to that click-bait in various platforms. But then naturally, my monkey mind started to stop jumping around. I could read 30 minutes straight, then 1 hour, then more, without being distracted. And there came the moment when I became deeply absorbed in the reading without even notice how much time had passed by. Night quiets down and stars shine brightly above from the skylight. Another world, vividly alive and once almost forgotten, finally opens up again.

Beautiful things lately

• James McAvoy is back in the market! I’ve never learned of one’s divorce with such a guilty glee haha :))) . He’s been my secret crush that I’ve almost never talked about with anyone. Still remember how my heart cracked a little when I found out he was married after swooning over him in “Becoming Jane”. Oh, those sparkle, mesmerising blue eyes of a dirty-minded innocent-looking child. He’s probably one of the finest, most-talented actors of his generation.

• “Rainy dawn” by Paustovsky: My all-time favourite, my treasure, my little hide-away. It soothes my mind like no other. Thank you for those who have helped to bring the book to Paris for me.

• MUJI wooden bowls and plates: these marvelously beautiful things just make me happy. I cannot stop myself from reaching for them whenever I need something to hold my food: a small bowl for rice, a larger one for soup and salads, a small plate for side dish, a larger one for pasta. Hand-made, light-weight, rightly-sized, they themselves are a pleasure just to look at with their magnificient cidarwood waves and lines glowing from underneath the lacquer.

• MUJI Hanoki wood candle: it smells heaven. The scent is warm and invigorating like sandalwood but without the overwhelming strongness. It will wrap you up in a most honey-like gentleness. I now understand why hanoki wood is ideal for Japanese traditional bathtub ofuro.

• 하늘바라기 Hopefully Sky by Jeong Eun Ji: I stumbled upon the song as it was featured in my auto play. She’s sitting there  by a window on a beautiful spring day smiling like an angel and I immediately fell so in love with the light, bright and airy song that I had to add it right away to my “Happy” playlist. But it was when I looked at the lyric that my tears flowed out in the crowded subway wagon at rush hours. “Kid, don’t get weak. Don’t live holding back all that sadness alone. – Dad, where are you going? Can I live with a heart like yours?” How much I’ve been holding back lately? Distancing from others to protect myself, and protect them, too. But from now, I’ll just look hopefully at the azure sky thinking about beautiful memories only.

• Ways of the Illustrator – Visual Communication in Childen’s Litterature by Joseph H. Schwarcz: I should have another post on the precious books I’ve read and another one only on picture books, but for now, this book is my holy grail. I’ve never read something that has such a powerful impact on my perception and understanding of children’s litterature in general and the job and responsibility bestowed on illustrators for those works in particular. It opened my eyes and should be a mandatory reading material for all those who wish to advance in illustration for children’s books.

• Rouge Intensément by Rouge Baiser Paris: the right kind of cool-to-neutral classic red lip colour that makes my lips POP, in a discreetly enigmatic, sensual way! I have no idea how it can achieve that contrasting effect but it glides like butter and works like charm.

꼬마야 약해지지마
슬픔을 혼자 안고 살지는 마
아빠야 어디를 가야
당신의 마음처럼 살 수 있을까