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For Now: Notes on living a deliberate life
What does it mean, to live a deliberate life? I use that term, but I'm still trying to figure it out. And I think that's the point, essentially: that we're always trying to figure it out. All of it. Who we are and where we belong, and whether those things are fixed or fluid, and whether we're allowed to change. What it means to be alive.
Torn between the two extremes of her personality, City Girl, the streetwise arsehole Londoner who subsists on traffic fumes and black takeaway coffee, and the mellow, nature-loving Sifnos Chick, who has found peace on a small island where there are barely any streets to be wise on, Daphne explores the contradictions that are inherent in all of us, as we strive to find our balance in a seesaw world; to find a life that makes sense to us and a place where we belong.
Written in Daphne's signature confusion of memoir, reflective essay and travel writing, and as much a sequel to 100 days of solitude as a standalone collection, For Now contains 27 stories of an ordinary life lived deliberately. Stories that could have been told differently or not at all, stories with a deliberate twist to allow for the extraordinary moments to break through the mundane and be noticed, and add up to a meaningful life.
171 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 6, 2017
18 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Daphne Kapsali
12 books67 followersDaphne Kapsali is a writer, reluctant yogi, and pathological optimist - among many other things. In 2014, she gave up her life in London to spend the autumn and winter writing on a remote Greek island; the result, a book entitled "100 days of solitude" – 100 separate and interconnected stories on claiming the time and space to live as your true self and do what you love – was published in March 2015 and has become an unexpected bestseller. She has since published another seven books, all of which are available from Amazon.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 29, 2017
Daphne Kapsali’s words are both brilliant and beautiful. And even more than that, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, they are inspiring. For Now is a sequel or continuation of sorts from Kapsali’s 100 days of solitude, her groundbreaking debut effort that I stumbled upon over two years ago. I have been hooked on her writing ever since. I find myself wanted to highlight passage after passage, so I can come back to them later for amazement’s sake or to post one of her shorter phrases on one of those colorful fb post for all of my “so called” friends to see. I’ll drop a few here for all those folks that truly care about the written word to get a gander at.
“Asking for help doesn’t mean you can’t manage on your own but only that sometimes, when the choice is there, you don’t have to.” Or how about… “There is no place that can define who you are, but places, if you allow them, can provide defining moments in your life.”
It was great to be reunited, if only for a little while, with Daphne’s colorful characters, City Girl, Sifnos Chick, and my favorite, Antagonist. They are all so Kapsali, and she has a way through her descriptions of bringing any and everything to life. Sample: “He’s always very still, an evil genius carefully plotting his next move, a bully choosing his next victim through slit-like eyes. I recognised him immediately, the bulk of him, the menacing presence. He’s big and solid, like a heavyweight boxer on steroids; he has a body like a bulldog and a face like an upside-down bucket.” And that’s a cat.
It’s easy to get lost in kapsali’s words and not want to find your way out. And sometimes…sometimes you find yourself inside the story, literally. I did, and I think some of those words are the best I’ve ever read. Kapsali claims her father is much better with words than she’ll ever be, and I believe her but only because she believes it. And, I just want to have a debate with this Joseph fella and shake him up a bit. The nerve! Daphne handles all the tough topics in her large, little space: Love, life, and death. And metaphors and similes come, flow, and go, not just in words but whole chapters before you notice you’ve experienced them. Here’s a bit more before we go.
“It isn’t anticlimax, when your dreams come true. Sometimes they just come quietly, subtly, gently; sometimes they trickle in rather than bursting through dams.”
“In their dark, dark world, some people see nothing except their own darkness, and they hold that up as a shield. And they will use it as a weapon, to bash out the light when other people try to shine.”
“I just want to burn gently, quietly, subtly in my corner, and to live in a coo-coo crazy world where the potential for everything exists.”
“All we can do for the dead, if we feel that something must be done, is to use the privileges of the living. To laugh, and cry, and ring the bells and turn up when we’re needed.”
There is soooo much more. The both scary and at the same time magnificent thing is that I know in my heart Daphne Kapsali’s best work is yet to come, and I want to be there, first in line to…experience it.
“Asking for help doesn’t mean you can’t manage on your own but only that sometimes, when the choice is there, you don’t have to.” Or how about… “There is no place that can define who you are, but places, if you allow them, can provide defining moments in your life.”
It was great to be reunited, if only for a little while, with Daphne’s colorful characters, City Girl, Sifnos Chick, and my favorite, Antagonist. They are all so Kapsali, and she has a way through her descriptions of bringing any and everything to life. Sample: “He’s always very still, an evil genius carefully plotting his next move, a bully choosing his next victim through slit-like eyes. I recognised him immediately, the bulk of him, the menacing presence. He’s big and solid, like a heavyweight boxer on steroids; he has a body like a bulldog and a face like an upside-down bucket.” And that’s a cat.
It’s easy to get lost in kapsali’s words and not want to find your way out. And sometimes…sometimes you find yourself inside the story, literally. I did, and I think some of those words are the best I’ve ever read. Kapsali claims her father is much better with words than she’ll ever be, and I believe her but only because she believes it. And, I just want to have a debate with this Joseph fella and shake him up a bit. The nerve! Daphne handles all the tough topics in her large, little space: Love, life, and death. And metaphors and similes come, flow, and go, not just in words but whole chapters before you notice you’ve experienced them. Here’s a bit more before we go.
“It isn’t anticlimax, when your dreams come true. Sometimes they just come quietly, subtly, gently; sometimes they trickle in rather than bursting through dams.”
“In their dark, dark world, some people see nothing except their own darkness, and they hold that up as a shield. And they will use it as a weapon, to bash out the light when other people try to shine.”
“I just want to burn gently, quietly, subtly in my corner, and to live in a coo-coo crazy world where the potential for everything exists.”
“All we can do for the dead, if we feel that something must be done, is to use the privileges of the living. To laugh, and cry, and ring the bells and turn up when we’re needed.”
There is soooo much more. The both scary and at the same time magnificent thing is that I know in my heart Daphne Kapsali’s best work is yet to come, and I want to be there, first in line to…experience it.
January 15, 2020
I am happy to report that this book is much better than Daphne Kapsali's first memoir, 100 days of solitude. Obviously isolating herself on the small Greek island of Sifnos in an effort to improve her writing paid off. In this book Daphne was much more philosophical and concentrated on finding the meaning behind her experiences rather than just recording them, as she did in her first book.
She got off to a rocky start after an unusual meeting with a fan of hers. Her interactions with the man she calls Joseph underline the differences between millennials and those of an older generation, perhaps a baby boomer (she guesses at his age). When Daphne's funds start getting low, she decides to crowdfund her new venture (this book), as she did with her first one. She sends an email to family and friends she thinks might be open to supporting her and/or spreading the word about her efforts. Joseph is, to say the least, not very receptive to her request. He chastises her for not supporting herself. Joseph is a writer and a sculptor but has always worked at a job to pay the bills, writing and sculpting in his spare time.
In Daphne's response to Joseph as well as her ruminations about the subject of artists supporting themselves, she exhibits a fair amount of entitlement. Daphne's father is apparently a poet of some renown in Greece, but he, too, has always worked to support himself. Daphne talks about artists from the past who had patrons that sponsored them so they could concentrate on their art. She seems to see crowdfunding as a modern version of this patronage. Perhaps her response to Joseph was sparked by seeing her father work all those years and writing his poetry in his spare time. As a baby boomer myself, I have worked most of my life, only taking off a few years when my son was born. Many writers and other artists have to fit their art around the necessities of everyday life, whether it means working outside the home and/or taking care of a home and children. Most of them don't feel the world owes them a living simply because they may possess some talent.
So once again I have come to the same conclusion: Daphne Kapsali was a decent writer and has become a better writer, but she is not someone I would probably have very much in common with. I enjoyed this book much more than the first one, particularly her imaginative way of splitting herself into several different personas that interact with each other. If she writes another memoir, I will probably read it. And I will sample her fiction at some point as well. But I won't be climbing up that hill on Sifnos to meet her the way Joseph did.
She got off to a rocky start after an unusual meeting with a fan of hers. Her interactions with the man she calls Joseph underline the differences between millennials and those of an older generation, perhaps a baby boomer (she guesses at his age). When Daphne's funds start getting low, she decides to crowdfund her new venture (this book), as she did with her first one. She sends an email to family and friends she thinks might be open to supporting her and/or spreading the word about her efforts. Joseph is, to say the least, not very receptive to her request. He chastises her for not supporting herself. Joseph is a writer and a sculptor but has always worked at a job to pay the bills, writing and sculpting in his spare time.
In Daphne's response to Joseph as well as her ruminations about the subject of artists supporting themselves, she exhibits a fair amount of entitlement. Daphne's father is apparently a poet of some renown in Greece, but he, too, has always worked to support himself. Daphne talks about artists from the past who had patrons that sponsored them so they could concentrate on their art. She seems to see crowdfunding as a modern version of this patronage. Perhaps her response to Joseph was sparked by seeing her father work all those years and writing his poetry in his spare time. As a baby boomer myself, I have worked most of my life, only taking off a few years when my son was born. Many writers and other artists have to fit their art around the necessities of everyday life, whether it means working outside the home and/or taking care of a home and children. Most of them don't feel the world owes them a living simply because they may possess some talent.
So once again I have come to the same conclusion: Daphne Kapsali was a decent writer and has become a better writer, but she is not someone I would probably have very much in common with. I enjoyed this book much more than the first one, particularly her imaginative way of splitting herself into several different personas that interact with each other. If she writes another memoir, I will probably read it. And I will sample her fiction at some point as well. But I won't be climbing up that hill on Sifnos to meet her the way Joseph did.
April 23, 2017
The perfect read, once again :)
Very few authors write this honestly and beautifully. I only wish I knew more people who love to read so I could get everyone a copy of at least one of Daphne's books.
Each chapter evokes a different set of emotions and by the end of the book you will have felt them all. We all learn from our experiences, but Daphne writes about it, gracefully. Cats, snakes or trolls... can all teach us something valuable about living life deliberately, this book is proof of that.
I definitely recommend!
Very few authors write this honestly and beautifully. I only wish I knew more people who love to read so I could get everyone a copy of at least one of Daphne's books.
Each chapter evokes a different set of emotions and by the end of the book you will have felt them all. We all learn from our experiences, but Daphne writes about it, gracefully. Cats, snakes or trolls... can all teach us something valuable about living life deliberately, this book is proof of that.
I definitely recommend!
May 1, 2020
A thoughtful and honest reflection of life’s ups and downs and an engaging description of how the minutiae of day to day activities contribute to the journey we all find ourselves taking in order to discover who we really are and what our ultimate goals may be. A very satisfying read.
July 9, 2017
I am a huge fan of Daphne's. I love her writing style - relaxed. Her writing makes me stop the hustle bustle of the world and observe and listen.
December 17, 2018
Enjoyable and insightful
I always look forward to reading this author’s musings. I slow down and start to notice more things in my ordinary life.
I always look forward to reading this author’s musings. I slow down and start to notice more things in my ordinary life.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews