Staying up allows me to find a floating expanse of fresh air in an otherwise polluted suburbia. Noise pollution is the worst. The hours between 1am and 4-6am are my respite from traffic, children, babies, blaring hip hop, and the all-too-dynamic population that makes up this neighbourhood.
Dad goes to bed after Mum, but he's the strong, silent type, and I can read alongside him on the couch horseshoe without too much distraction.
I've read four books since the start of the year. Ben Nash's 'Get Unstuck: How to live a life unlimited by money' confused me then, and it confuses me to date. It's not that I don't understand the concepts - it's that I don't know how to divide my savings up into the two or three goals I've identified as worth pursuing.
Long-time readers of ~Epiphanie Bloom~ will know [redacted for confidentiality purposes] I am shaping whatever future I will end up having right now!
Then there was 'The Year of Living Danishly' - a blast for the most part, with frequent passages of the unputdownable variety. I learned more about Danish culture than I was expecting, especially since Copenhagen was but a weekend trip's worth of stories, while rural Jutland was the locus from which all things originated. Would I move to Denmark myself? Oh yeah. Just because it's unlikely to eventuate, doesn't mean I can't dream...
It's sweet that the emotional state of cows upon first reuniting with grassy plains after a long, snowy winter, is something that Jutlanders value. I can only imagine how much Australian workplaces would improve if communal singing took place in the office at regular intervals. Affordable daycare is rightly something the politicians cared about and got integrated into the system... however if I want to read a book about the lessons Bulgarian-Australians can learn from Nordic feminism, I'm going to have to write it myself: Helen Russell wasn't one to dwell on my favourite topic.
In addition to these (rather different) books was 'Rest: Why you get more done when you work less' by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. It may have been written more for professionals with conventionally high-flying career trajectories (esp if male), but valuable lessons for the likes of me were in abundance too. Approaching the concept of rest from a number of complementary angles, I'll try to integrate more walks along the beach into my schedule, sleep longer, and maybe someday experiment with naps (I'm afraid of napping and crying), just to name a few of the methods explored.
I was surprised to read an
article by the author over at TED.com which explained that, scientifically speaking, you will benefit more from travel if you take one week off every three months, instead of waiting for that one-off four-week period. That was a cool way to discover the book.
So 'Rest' had a conspicuous dearth of female influence. It seemed like 93% of the famous or noteworthy figures whose relationship with work and rest Alex examined were cis men, and there were no two ways about it. If a writer wants to include women significantly, they will find a way to do so.
Finally we have 'Finding Sisu: In search of courage, strength and happiness the Finnish way', my liking of which was more subdued than the previously listed titles, but eh, they can't all get five stars. Katja Pantzar aims to make the most out of relocating to Helsinki by embracing the concept of sisu, which it turns out has very practical implications. With an emphasis on physical activity that makes the most of the beautiful Nordic environment, Katja discovers the benefits of bathing in icy water and cycling through green spaces, to name a few. While the theme is sisu, this journey is also about cultivating wellbeing in the face of depressive tendencies. I feel the focus could have been enhanced to incorporate the "messiness" of one human being searching for zest in a world that frequently gets her down, with sisu perhaps part of a trifecta, but not the unifying theme.
This post is already longer than usual, so I won't try to make many links between the books, except to say that each has allowed me to explore new avenues of thinking, and has been rewarding in its own way.
Onward to the next! (Reading is life.)
