Another weekend — a long weened here in Ontario no less! — has come, and it’s time to look at what has been lighting me up, and lighting my way this week.
My week started with a great chat with my sister about chapter 2 in Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannnon Au’s The Discerning Heart (2006). But reading chapter 3 for our next session (which will be delayed until next week since I have company coming later today (blizzard permitting!)), was a needful kick in the butt. I’ve mentioned before that I struggle a bit with ‘learned helplessness’, which is essentially the phenomenon of learning not to try in the wake of setbacks, failures, or missed opportunities. While the chapter didn’t give me any great ideas, it did at least light a spark of curiosity to at least try once again to find the right niche for me in life. It was good timing since I had my annual performance review coming up at work this week and this enabled me to come at that situation with a more positive, solution-focused, and creative attitude than I might have otherwise after a few difficult months.
My reading week was successful, if largely unmemorable. Nothing was disappointing — far from it, they were all 4.5 or 5-star reads for me — but not much has stuck with me. The exception was Never Been Better, by local Toronto author Leanne Toshiko Simpson (not to be confused with a more famous local, Indigenous author, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson). It was the absolute best representation of living in the wake of a major mental health crisis I’ve encountered. If it had ‘lessons’ or ‘morals’, they were helpful reminders for me, such as keeping your eyes on your own plate and allowing yourself to be running your own race. (As Ben Okri’s Astonishing the Gods put it, “learning what you know is something you have to do every day, and every moment.”)
My favourite new album from the past week is the self-titled release by Michigander. While it definitely has a lot of nostalgic riffs from the ‘00s and ‘10s, it manages to feel fresh in a way that a lot of the ‘sound-alike’ music right now (especially by male artists) doesn’t.
We’ve definitely been getting ‘real winter’ this year. In fact, they’re calling for another blizzard today — our third in eight days. So far, I’ve been able to cozy in for the most part and haven’t been too inconvenienced by them. But we’ll see how today goes. As I mentioned, I am expecting out-of-town company, and there’s a chance his travel could be impacted by today’s storm, and, if the storm is bad, it will likely clip our wings a bit for tour-guiding. But we shall see. Thankfully, while I’ve enjoyed not having to be out and about in the snow much this week, I do actually enjoy snow, and my visitor is coming from a cold-weather city too and so is excited for the challenge!
So what’s lighting you up this week?
Matthew Root 