In the spirit of doing things according to 'tradition' here on the blog, here is my third time writing a list about what I have been up to during the festive season.
Christmas came - a quiet, harmattan-essenced day and it felt so much like a normal day. Like any other Saturday where it get's into someone's mind to make an elaborate breakfast. And I enjoyed that normalcy. I enjoyed it with the thrum of Christmas humming somewhere in the back of my mind. It is another year, and I am happy to have survived it. To have found a steady hope and joy despite everything I encountered.
SO,
What have I been up to?
In the usual fashion of the days between Christmas and the New Year - those days that stretch on by, and where time doesn't seem to matter. Who cares if the 29th is a Saturday? Or a Friday. It all feels like the contentment of too much food and too much free time; too much joy from catching up with everyone that you didn't get to see enough of.
For me, the day after boxing day, I had to be back at work.
Only for a day though. And I have been on a very short leave from work since then.
It doesn't feel like the way that a leave usually feels. I oddly feel just as busy as ever. So many things to do. To prepare for. To sort out.
This and that.
Life feels so busy these days, even when you are trying to just relax. When you are trying to enjoy a well-deserved holiday.
During my trip back from work = my last trip back home from work for the whole year! - i was listening to an old favourite of mine. A song from Lorde's Pure Heroine.
I was listening to it to get me back to some idea of what it felt like to be a teenager- for something I am working on, but wow. I was taken back to what it feels like to be an artist.
Artist.
That word.
With all of the creative things I have pursued, that I have done and either succeeded or failed at this year, you would think that word, that identity would be at the forefront of my mind.
But i have almost forgotten what it is like to have your imagination, your sense of wonder captured by a moment in time that feels so perfect it is like it was created to call out to you. To remind you that there is so much, much more to living.
And it is so easy to forget that. To forget about art in the daily realities of just getting a job done. Of making sure you remember to eat, remember to call your loved ones. Check in with friends. Check items of your to-do list
I was on the bus when I was listening to that song, and it reminded me of all of the bus rides i took as a student, wondering when the whole student thing would be over. Wondering how lovely it would feel to have my imagination set free. No longer needing to have it share space with my crazy work load.
Now, i realise I was wrong.
Maintaining your connection to art is work. It is part of the work in itself. And in some ways, it is a war. Something you need to fight for.
When I was a younger writer, the thing that made it hard for me to really go deep with my art was being surrounded by people that just didn't get it. Why would you even want to do that - be a writer? it is so random.
Now, the fight is with something more insidious. Remembering to art in the first place. Remembering to think about all of the ways the world can be. Being brave enough to explore them. Being brave enough to believe they exist in the first place.
I know you know what i am talking about.
Over Christmas, and the Holidays in general, i have been trying to rest. To allow that wonder come back into my mind. To hold space for it.
I hope we can all be intentional about doing that. It is so, so easy to forget. The war is ensuring that we do not forget.
On a lighter note, here are the things that have captured my imagination over the holiday
BOOKS
I bought two books to read over the holidays. I wanted sweet, i wanted light-hearted. And i wanted a bit of suspense and a solid plot.
So why did I choose a non-fiction book? Ha-ha
My Holiday reads are
- Longthroat Memoirs by Yemisi Aribisala. A book I can't believe took me this long to get. I have enjoyed these author's essays whenever I find them on the internet. So, owning this book is such a treat.
Plus, there are actual receipes to try out. Maybe I will write a review about the book in the coming year. A work of non-fiction about Nigerian food - but really, about NIGERIA and what it means to be Nigerian explored through the lens of food
SO, this book is a lot.
But it is fiction, and it has a plot. it is oddly reminescent of Percy Jackson and the ligthening thieves. Or things from Norse mythology.
Reading this book really makes me see how the Yoruba and Norse patheons are so similar.
But, i like the world-building and very scientific approach the author takes to describing the elements in this book. I saw a review of it by The Republic here and I honestly felt i had to read it.
So, i am reading it now.
MUSIC
There is nothing much here. I do not want to bore you.
I have been listening to Mariah Carey's Christmas albums.
Predictably.
I promise to try to listen to a more varied selection of artists in the New Year.
AND till then, I wish you the sweetest things the last hours of this year can bring to you.
Take care.
I can't wait to write to you soon.
(DO NOT forget about what art can do. What it can point to. Ever.)