entry no. 11, "summer 2025"
august [2025].
The last pictures from august, are the events from the beginning of the month that happened while sadness marinated. But we survived it, and pray for our loved ones still this Lenten season.
it’s February 21st, the fourth day of lent and I've been thinking about music. when it comes to fasting, people talk about fasting from music during lent and ramadan, actually one my close friends mentioned it to me a few years ago. well, I was thinking of an alternative to that and although I am still figuring it out (and probably won’t before lent ends) I have come up with something that I am willing to try because music really helps me a lot in getting through the hard days. so, I was thinking of it like this, since I am still learning how to be intentional with the music I listen to and I have lived enough to gather some core artists that really speak to me with their music, I think I will stick to only listening to their discography for the entirety of lent. George Michael, Dunsin Onyekan, Steel Pulse, Joni Mitchell, Roberta Flack, Bob Marley, Letta Mbulu, Nina Simone, are the artists I have in mind to start with and I will update as the weeks go by.
then, for my “things to not do” (because you need to have restrictions), I will not be listening to playlists and I will not be shuffling the music in my library. both of these are because of the same reasons, firstly playlists (mostly the ones I did not make) have a mix of music that I don’t know and don’t want to listen to especially now so I will be avoiding playlists of any kind, even the ones I made. second reason is because of nostalgia, I associate music with memories and although I am not trying to control my emotions per se, I want to be more focused and not have to deal with some sudden rush of nostalgia because golden brown by the stranglers came up on my shuffle (this a very specific example). anyways that’s about it for now.
for pictures feature, here are more from day 2 and 3 of a short but eventful trip to Barbados.
when I started making this post it wasn’t ash Wednesday yet, and I had just been frightened by some eye-opening videos I saw on instagram. anyways it is Ash Wednesday today, meaning Lent has begun. at the same time I am no longer as frightened as I was before and i have clear thoughts of the words I want accompanying these pictures.
“looking at these pictures I remember the feeling of fear. fear is such an interesting concept because a person could act ever so fearlessly while being the most scared person in the room. for example, these are pictures from a trip to Barbados I had to take so I that could get my study permit, and I was very scared before the trip, during and a little after the trip, but I still behaved like I was not scared of a thing. so this Lent season, no matter how scared I am I will not let it stop me from doing what I have to do to keep reaching my full potential.”
