Pens, normal people, procrastination, and more
seven thin[g/k]s explored this week
Dear reader,
Happy last week of January. As a warm welcome to new subscribers who have connected with Boundless Being this month, I’m considering doing a little Q&A. I recently came across my newsletter’s About Me page, which has flown under my radar despite apparently being a fixture here for a while now; but I’d love to more personally answer any questions you might have about me. I’ll gather Q’s via Instagram, or the comments here, so feel free to send yours my way. Talk soon!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about furniture, perhaps because I’m on the hunt for a coffee table. Past its designated function, what does it reveal? About itself? About us? In that vein, a friend recommended I check out Francis Gallery, whose current exhibition includes Will Calver (“fragments of narrative emerge from the careful arrangement of objects, and where each element acquires exaggerated expressive or gestural qualities. Upon this stage, it becomes possible to read the placement and angle of a leaf as optimist or pessimist, jaunty or forlorn”) and Rajan Bijlani (showcasing historic furniture pieces by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret). I’ll visit and report back.
Until then, here are seven thin[g/k]s explored this week, shared with the hope that you will find them to be an inspiring springboard for deeper thinking.
Done with Normal People, and the following quote has been with me all morning:
From a young age her life has been abnormal, she knows that. But so much is covered over in time now, the way leaves fall and cover a piece of earth, and eventually mingle with the soil. Things that happened to her then are buried in the earth of her body.
A reading list before these books hit the screens. Top of the list for me as a reread is Wuthering Heights in anticipation of the upcoming film adaptation next month. Normal People read like a screenplay for me (so did Hamnet, to an extent), and while refreshing as a storytelling format for someone like me who always nosedives into the classics, I find myself pining for Bronte.
Eyeing various parts of our home with the intention of creating a whimsical reading nook for Gigi. If you have any ideas to encourage more reading in the worlds of toddlers, I am all ears! Thinking fairy lights, a comfy seat, turning her play tent into a reading area, etc.
I saw myself in this opening from the writer’s reflections on procrastination:
After 33 years, it’s time to admit: I’ve never quite got the hang of myself. Am I a morning person or a night owl? What actually motivates me? Where exactly do I work best?
Consider me a kid in the candy store with this roundup of ‘the best pens for 2026.’
Why read novels? Eight theories are presented after a funny, and I bet accurate for most, bare-boned recap of what was remembered from the experience of reading Crime and Punishment. I’d also bet what was remembered from the experience of reading Crime and Punishment, for many, is far meatier.
Trying a screen-free meal, because my attention span is fried, distractions somehow quadruple instead of simmering down with the passage of time, and the nagging overwhelm of needing to get things done renders me paralyzed. Just me? The analog life is becoming more and more appealing.
Sending my love to you! Thank you for reading. My next piece will encompass book notes for Normal People.
Ani
Normal people is a remarkable novel with so many passages like that one that sits with you. For me it is often the single sentences that capture enormous ideas in very simple words like “It feels powerful to him to put an experience down in words, like he's trapping it in a jar and it can never fully leave him.”
After 63 years, I am a writer who still wonders about those same things.
Pens? I have a Lamy Safari with a fine nib that writes more beautifully than most things I have ever written with. After that, there's a cheap gel that I fear I may never replace when it finally runs dry. Mechanical pencils still lurk in my tool bag and for bigger projects... Selectrics.
Thank you for the wwonderful start to a cold Monday morning in January.