Rhiannon > Recent Status Updates

A fitting description of the book from the book :

"I seem, almost unconsciously, to have fallen into a habit of treating these entries as if they were the writings of an oracle or seer, someone in a frenzied or inspired state who imparts knowledge, albeit in a strange and not easily processed form."

Difficult to tell if I like this book.

On one hand I feel like this book is far too slow, im tired of descriptions of statues and reading the words "year the albatross came to the halls" and I dont really understand or care to understand what is going on. On the other, I am attached to the character piranesi and enjoy hearing about his ideas and routines... could have been a cute short story of about 30-50 pages max

"My experience is what I agree to attend to.. to shape my mind". We must be intentional with our attention as we become that which we attend to.

Paying attention and engaging with what really matters to us is enriching, promotes authenticity and prevents dissonance with our values/ self concept.

Although it is a struggle in the attention economy and the rhythm of today's world.

Our brains frame and inform perception and self value (self esteem) through the lens of self beliefs, which can be negatively skewed.

Our sense of self and self-esteem is rooted in other's perceptions of ourselves. This is where marketing exploits our nature - "buying has replaced being"

People with SAD will focus on criticism rather than praise, creating avoidance and generating fears into reality.

Preface: where does suffering come from? From feeling like we are not enough/ trying hard enough in a frenetic paced world that revolves around productivity and consumption. We are not built for this rhythm/ purpose. We need enrichment/ meaning and a feeling of belonging. The goal of this book: "step into an ever so slightly more specific you", feel more comfortable in your own skin and attuned to your own needs.

Ok I'm starting to get it

Ok I get it every character I love is gonna die in the saddest wag possible

Just got done reading the first short story. Mixed feelings. Whilst it is beautifully written and engaging, it is also brutally sad. I'm also finding it difficult to read. Feels like reading a thesaurus written by a poet.

Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the justice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm- eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet.

The whole system of British politics, it system it may courteously be called, consisting in multiplying dependents and contriving taxes which grind the poor to pamper the rich; thus a war, or any wild goose chase is a lucky turn up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping himself in place.

Omg

This book wildly swings between strikingly beautiful, funny and tiresomely verbose

All the feeling she had been betrayed into showing she drew back into herself again by a strenuous effort of self command

That she had felt herself sufficient to herself, and had in the independence of her girlish heart fancied there was a certain degradation in renouncing the simplicity of a maiden existence to become the humbler half of an indifferent matrimonial whole was bitterly remembered to her now

There was a time when you turned to me, before I thought of you! I don't reproach you, for even now I feel that the ignorant and cold darkness that I should have lived in if you had not attracted me would have been worse than my knowledge of you, though it has brought this misery. could I but have forseen the torture that trifling trick was going to lead me into, how I should have cursed you.

#teamOak I hope that Bathsheba stops messing around every eligible bachelor in town, and either really does become the independent woman she claims to be and is capable of being, or she really does give Oak a chance.

For so long, she'd willfully sought the in-between. She'd thought of herself as fated to live suspended, floating between two countries, in the vapour between languages. But too much vaporous freedom brought its own constraints. She now felt as confined by her floating state, as other more wholesome people were to the towns where they were born.

Started reading this at 2am last night. That was a mistake.

"I love my country, and its hopes for freedom and justice. But the boundaries of what I honour are bigger. Let us pledge reciprocity with the living world. The thanksgiving address describes our mutual allegiance as human delegates to the democracy of species. If we want to produce good citizens let us teach reciprocity, if what we want is justice for all then let it be justice justice all of creation"

On her ayahuasca trip, Sylvia reunites with her child self. She sees her as she is, not how she had been harshly judging her to be, a scared, broken and lonely little girl. A victim of sexual abuse. She holds the child tight and is consumed with the rage of injustice. The child takes her hand, brings her to the mountains so that they may freely roam the valleys, highs and lows of life and marvel with childlike wonder

Jesus christ.

Many survivors experience disassociation. Sensory interaction can help gain reconnection to and ownership of their bodies. Trauma lives in the body and we must work it out through the body. Through sexual abuse, boundaries dissolve. Physical, emotional and energetic boundaries. As you grow, you carry all the terrible things they inflicted on you.

"After leaving my country in desperation, I spent years in fracture, searching for an identity in a place that only saw me as an immigrant, an outsider".

"There was a fire in her eyes. She was a warrior for better or for worse. As an immigrant, we take a huge risk that alters the course of our lives and those of the generations that come after. It takes cajones to leave your home and start from scratch."