Pic: "Mojave Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)" by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region (licensed under CC BY 2.0.)
I’ve had to go paid because of cost of living… so if you choose to subscribe, thank you. The intent is to give you brain food.
So here’s something fascinating for this HYTA round up. Mammals hibernate but reptiles undergo a state of brumation. That’s their equivalent when they have low energy and are sluggish and basically just don’t do anything.
And onto the usual rabbit hole - apparently brumation is a word that was created by American zoologist Wilbur W. Mayhew in the 1960s. More on that here:
Anyway I’ve not been as productive as perhaps I’d like because I’ve been rather exhausted. However I feel less guilty about it due to reading articles about productivity or a lack of. Otegha Uwagba’s Guardian article from late 2021 made a huge impression on me. It’s worth a read and is all about slowing down: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/31/stopped-being-productive-overwork-virtue
As a freelancer I’ve had to make sure I go out and network and meet people. It’s something I try to teach in a lot of the training courses I run but I’m the first to admit that it takes effort and can be rather tiring. It is a necessity as that’s how you often get work - through connections. And it’s way harder to find connections when sitting in your bedroom. But attending events like News:Rewired proved to be fruitful as I was able to follow up several leads. So while there are times I would like to be a tortoise or a bear and hibernate, it’s not necessarily ideal in a freelance gig economy world.
One thing I did make an effort for though was a wander to the beautiful Camley Street Natural Park - an urban green sanctuary in London’s King Cross because a) it’s serene and b) I had some exciting life developments.
https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/camley-street-natural-park
Years ago, I was surrounded by uber talented poets. They could come up with concepts in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t do it and I got afraid of writing poetry. I liked it and appreciated it but didn’t feel I could do it. Over the past year, while in my less productive journalism stage, I’ve been dabbling more with other forms of writing - including poetry. I’ve been attending workshops (run by amazing organisations such as Apples and Snakes, Writerz & Scribez and Spread the Word so definitely worth checking out for fellow writers branching out) and I’ve been building my confidence.
And so it was super cool to find out a poem I wrote about the stereotype of the model minority and the pressures of it had been accepted for publication in The Open Arms zine published by the Margate Bookie - a super popular litfest, which funnily enough takes place by the sea in Margate, Kent. The editor of the zine - Justin - came up to Kings Cross to present a copy to me as I couldn’t make the live launch over the Jubliee Bank Holiday weekend
Apart from clearly encouraging you to check out my poem and the creative work of others in The Open Arms, there are other reads that I’ve been enjoying. I was sent a copy of The Rebuilders: Going from setback to comeback in business and beyond by publishers Kogan Page. I was intrigued by the title when I saw a copy going spare on Twitter and put my name in the hat for it.
Written by Sarah Tate and Anna Vogt, it’s a rather helpful book especially while am in my career transition stage (yes it’s still ongoing). It contains case studies and useful tips which are about moving forward. But it’s all rather practical and quite heavily evidence based. There is a demystifying myths section in each chapter. There are tools and also an acceptance that actually life does have messy middles and times which are a bit harder to go to through. The authors are very good with attribution and signalling other podcasts and people to listen to and read when in time of recalibration. It is a bit long though and you can’t get through it in one sitting. I also had to be in the right mood to read it and there were times when I just didn’t feel like rebuilding.
But if interested: https://www.koganpage.com/product/the-rebuilders-9781398606012
