This weekend:
– I spent another whole day with Ally, Juan and baby Nalia. Some extra baby-love pictures for you (far more professional looking than mine):
– I have been highly inspired by an Alan Watts quote which has brought me a lot of peace of mind. I have been surprised at how quickly things improved once I abandoned all thoughts of the future and concentrated on the present — ironically my father (who has to be the most negative person I know) spent our whole childhood trying to hammer this into our heads (“be here now kids!”). Thus, I am sharing it here with you:
“For unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatsoever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say “Now, I’ve arrived!” Your entire education has deprived you of this capacity because it was preparing you for the future, instead of showing you how to be alive now.”
– It is the Autumn Moon Festival and the whole of Taiwan smells of burnt meat and incense as the streets are full of people gathered around makeshift barbecues, squatting on little plastic stools and enjoying their family holiday.
– I took my first run in Taiwan, along the river. I waited till it was dark and the heat and humidity weren’t quite so oppressive, and then did a run/walk of about 7.5km in total. My knees barely hurt and I carefully ignored times and distances, as befits a return to running after such a long break. I had plenty to distract me anyway, as there were hundreds of people out barbecuing, setting off fireworks, and generally having a ball on the riverbanks. I didn’t take any pictures as my phone camera really can’t do much in the dark, unsurprisingly, but I did capture this cute scaffolding cover, so I can add it to my Bunnah tumblr.
today I did this for me 