the long hold #3

three lessons for the third week in a row

Happy Friday pals,

It’s been a pancake-less week for me—felt too indulgent to go through the motions for one. But I have been taking full advantage of hot cross bun season (apple and cinnamon, obv). Maybe it’s the new moon, the new month, or the early inklings of spring, but I’ve had a lil’ pep in my step this week. Still, it wouldn’t be complete without a tempering of yin energy to close off the working week.

Enough small talk. In the words of Rizzle Kicks, let’s skip to the good bit.

finding an edge

I played the self-employed card and booked a mid-afternoon yoga class this week. I’m not completely reckless—I condensed my working hours into the morning, ignored the pull of the lunchtime sun, and ate at my desk—all to defer gratification and walk to the studio instead of getting the bus. Google Maps told me it was a leisurely 46-minute stroll. I was confident I could do it in sub-40.

Scarf and sunnies on, sun warming the pavement, I set off down the hill, AirPods in and… nothing. No beep. No connection. Yes, the worst had happened—they were out of battery.

I actually stopped in the middle of the pavement and considered turning around. Going home. Waiting half an hour for them to have enough juice and to get the bus instead. All so I wouldn’t have to do the walk raw.

But my legs had already decided. I persevered and found myself in a rare, unstimulated mode of being: no soundtrack, no podcast, no passive content consumption. Except it was all stimulation, just the sounds of school kids, road noise, birdsong, and passing conversations you never quite get enough context of. And, of course, the endless thoughts bouncing around this head—enough to occupy an Iron Man.

Still, I’d learned my lesson, and the first thing I did when I got home was plug those puppies in.

seeking stillness

I’ve been photosynthesising, a walking solar panel, giddy that the sun is just about out (at the same time as the moon) when I leave the office:

It’s that delicious sliver of shoulder season where you can feel both the crisp bite of cold air and the slow, radiant warmth of the sun. And it’s only in stillness—lingering on a park bench, waiting on a train platform—that the heat truly sinks in.

The reason, which I probably learned in biology at school but have since forgotten, is convective air flow. When we’re moving, the body naturally cools itself. Stand still, and that heat has time to settle, to build on your skin. Seems obvious, feels delicious.

taking time

From science to languages, I learned a new German word this week: Eigenzeit—“proper time” or “appropriate time.” It speaks to the time inherent in a process, the patience required to let things unfold as they should.

The last six months (and then some) have been a literal and figurative descent into darkness for me, followed by a slow, non-linear ascent back into the light. Time, it seems, has been doing its thing.

We’re coming out.

Knowledge shared is knowledge gained. What’s something you’ve learned this week?