Small beauties (002)
some things I am grateful for
Good morning to you :)
If you follow Studio Styles on Instagram, you may have seen by now that I’m OOO for all of August. But I’m not sure if that will affect my making of this list because I do find a lot of stuff I like and since I’m currently not using the internet socially, there’s a lot I find that I’m like I can’t see this alone!
Here’s some of them from last week:
Idk mehn I’ve been changing and the fact that I read this guy’s Fathers’ Day reflection from 2017 and thought, “you know what? fair enough” felt like evidence of said change.
‘When people, especially women, speak disparagingly of the patriarchy, I assume they are thinking of the absence of the real father spirit, usually replaced by an anxious, symptomatic, neurotic fathering that is overbearing, self-serving and aggressive. This is not the father spirit but rather the bent insanity that fills in when the genuine father spirit is lost.’
Almost all of the first 21 years of my life was spent struggling with feeling like my parents did not love me but thinking they must love me and so this not-love must be love, must be acceptable, must be suffered! And in 2018, I took the idea that I had parents (in the way I desired to have parents) off life support and started the necessary task of mourning. In 2021, I finally felt fully ready and all planned out to never speak to them and most of my family again but, ugh, God disposes 🤪!
Anyway, I currently live in their house with them in some kind of peace and I fundamentally think of them simply as some complex fellow sojourners I’ve been given to live with forever, just two of the many talents the master entrusted me with. This state of our relationship makes it easier for me to read stuff like this guy’s reflection and think “fair enough”.
Nigeria’s current food crisis. Even if you’re living under a rock like I currently am, there’s no escaping the fact of the food crisis. A recent report from Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture predicts that at least 31.5 million citizens may experience a food and nutrition crisis between June and August. You can see the progression of the food insecurity crisis mapped out here in that abstracted data way. Abstract data aside, touch anything or anybody around here rn and tears will leak. And though I am currently shielded from it, the suffering, the hunger, is palpable.
I enjoyed reading this article that makes a case for urban farming as a sustainable pathway out of the current food crisis. It also breaks down exactly how this current crisis is a product of the specific mix of our current economic, security and environmental challenges. I appreciated the insight and felt encouraged hearing that the government is currently employing measures, such as restrictions on import duties, grants and incentives to sub-national governments to grow their own food.
Make your life yours! Dare to find out from yourself what you desire out of life, the ‘too’ weird, the ‘too’ funky, the ‘too’ plain, the ‘too’ simple, etc. And seek it out. This article was a reminder that the effort to articulate and pursue one’s desires is worth it.
To express a desire is always vulnerable. To let yourself yearn for something you do not have, and then go after it, risking disappointment, requires courage. Whenever someone tells me they really want a relationship, or kids, or they are desperate to feel more part of a community, I want to applaud the honesty. Saying what we really want, especially relationally, without shame or apology, is so badass. Many of us have to root out a lot of “shoulds” (I should be ok on my own, I shouldn’t desire this, this should have happened more easily) to get there.
It’s been months since their typography rebrand and my heart still flutters when I open Spotify and I see the way the curves of the ‘a’ flops down. Their new font is truly a dynamic and diverse font made to move at every volume.
Here’s an article in Fast Company that put into words how I feel about the ‘a’.
“Inside geometric letters like a, d, and e, where the negative space would typically be a circle, Spotify Mix uses a kind of sideways teardrop shape—another stylistic choice that mimics audio amplification. Together, these small touches are meant to give the words flow and rhythm, just like the songs they describe.”
SOME FUN PLAYLISTS :)
I was born in August and school usually starts in September and so August for me has always been a hard reset month, a month of deep reflection and fishing out a new me for the new year. I love a good, deep, plum-coloured August.
Here are some playlists I’ll be listening to to tap into gratitude for how far I’ve come and all the things and people I met in the way and the wonderful chance I’ve been given to walk away from some of it all.
054: God’s Love Working in Their Hearts
055: Let’s get this everlasting BREAD
Internet gems 💎
An old idea articulated in AURORA’s voice: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMruW7NJ2/
Before I leave… It’s been many years since I first read these words in Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple:
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
I don’t think it pisses God off but I do think God is always trying to please us, is always here for whenever we wish or are able to recognise that It’s always been here, full of eternal love and beauty for us.
This August, I pray that you find it easier than before to notice and attune yourself to the boundless beauty life offers us every day, in big and small ways. I pray you find reason to convince yourself that beauty and sweetness are for you to enjoy. Here. At this time. With everything going on. I pray you find it in yourself to forgive yourself for whatever you think damns you beyond the reach of Love. By virtue of your existence, you are a good thing, deserving of peace, enjoyment and healing, deserving to be here, just as human and k-leggy as you are.
It’s 11:19am in Nigeria. This just made my morning I appreciate it!✨
To read you is to hug you. You make my heart so full.