0 THE FOOL

2020, I got your back!

Picture by Roanna Fernandes

There is no clever way for me to begin this essay, you know. I’m terribly aware of what’s happening (as you all must be), and I don’t feel emotionally equipped to say anything about it... We are moving through a strange time, a strange time is moving through us.

• This essay is going to be a bunch of pointers about, ahem, things (some that I’ve been occupying myself with), in no particular order.
• Thanks to SCRIBD’s kindly initiative (wherein you can sign up for free on their website without including your credit card details), I’ve been reading a bunch of books on there… Keep Going by Austin Kleon (I love it), and some old Nancy Drew mystery books that I never read before!!!! (All the titles I couldn’t find as a teen.) There was also a lovely book I stumbled upon over the weekend called Mystic Summer by Hannah McKinnon, and I liked that too. I love whoever came up with this initiative at SCRIBD, thank you so much!
• (I was initially gonna open this piece of writing with Home, Sweet Home! takes a dark turn in this essay.)
• Ooh, oh, today marks nine months of my journalling everyday! It’s been a journey, and I recommend it to you all. — Also, I have a tradition, if you will, wherein I read all of the entries of the last month on the first day of every new month. Like: I just read all my entries from March 1-31, 2020, today. It’s funny how much you forget, and what you rediscover.
• A quote I’m currently feeling on a deep level is this one by Jessica Dore: Doing magic is and always has been a way to counteract feelings of powerlessness.
• Dua Lipa’s Physical has got me feeling diamond-rich, these days! ; ) [Dua has a powerful voice, and Physical gets me grooving and singing along, every single time I play it (one time too many, mates). Apart from the chorus, my favourite lines are: I don’t wanna live another life/’Cause this one’s pretty nice.]
• Another track: Billie Eilish’s Ocean Eyes. It’s softly powerful! Angelic! Magical! A unicorn of a song! (No fair/You really know how to make me cry/When you give me those ocean eyes/I’m scared /I’ve never fallen from quite this high/Fallin’ into your ocean eyes/Those ocean eyes)
• Lately: I’ve been giving makeovers to some of my old drawings from over the years, and I’m having a great deal of fun with the process.
• I decided to learn Italian for the heck of it! For now, I can rattle off the days of the week: lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica.
• So I pulled The Fool card on March 20, 2020: Whilst I don’t recollect everything I interpreted then — I do know I thought it was prophetic in a sagely way to come by it. About what we can do in this time, how we carry hope, what emboldens us to take that step forward no matter the depth of what it is we’re plummeting into… IDK, stuff like that.
• I feel like I’m forgetting something? No matter… I’ll edit this post if I remember what it is.

I truly hope that you’re doing okay, wherever you are. We’re going to come out of this: courageous, graceful, protected, wise.