You, your stuff, your identity
Oh, hi friends!
If you own 300 books, does that make you a person who loves to read?
What if you haven’t touched a book in months?
If you have a stack of leather notebooks, does that make you a person who loves to write?
How about if every page is empty?
If you have a kitchen full of brand-new gear, does that make you a person who loves to cook?
You get the idea…not necessarily.
A funny thing happens when we acquire things. These items get bound up in our sense of identity, and our identity is fueled by having them.
Surrounding ourselves with aspirational items and totems can be inspiring. We want our physical worlds to reflect our inner worlds.
This is who I am, our items shout. I am a person who reads, writes, cooks, crochets, watercolors, runs, swims, collects Danish art, etc.
But how quickly we can change, in a good way.
And how nice would it feel — how aligned would you feel — if your outside world reflected not who you longed to be in the past, but a brighter, more brilliant you of the future.
“…For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Hamlet, Act Two, Scene 2
Why Is This So So Good
This 20-minute video called “The Life of Roses” is maybe the most compelling thing I’ve watched all year?! This woman named Li Ziqi plants, picks, dries, and turns the flowers into rose jam and rose smoked chicken and more in rural Sichuan.
The cinematography! The passage of time! The creativity! Her channel has almost 13 million followers on YouTube, and I can see why. I can’t wait to watch “The Life of Cucumbers” next!!! (h/t Aransas Savas)
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara