Hello sweet friends, long time no see! I hope each and every one have you been holding up as well as you can. I must say I just have not been very inspired to write these past few months, but here I am! Today I am coming to you all with a lesson that really stuck out to me from this book I have been reading. It is called Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom which is about the sweetest little dying old man who has such genuine kindness and pureness, it warms my heart. He led a life of joy and caring for others and shares what he has learned with the author who comes to visit him. If any of you love to feel loved, inspired and excited about life like I do, I recommend any of his books, but most of all this one. I'm not even halfway through it so I can't say I know this book fully, but just from the few dozens of pages I have read, I am beyond in love with it. Anyways, there is a quote from Morrie that states:
"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."
Now after thinking about this for a bit, I really began to wonder what types of culture I buy into the most and how it makes me feel. Work culture, pop culture, the amount of time I spend on things that have no value to me in the end. I know I love to lean into pop culture because it is just so juicy, but at the end of the day, it doesn't bring me any fulfillment or satisfaction because I know that the information I get from it is utterly useless to me. A lot of what we see in Western culture is also very shame oriented and like he said, does not make you feel good about yourself. So what can we do about this? Is it possible to reject it? Well, the solution to it is apparently simpler than I thought. You just have to create your own culture and devote every single day of the rest of your life to it. Make your own rules and start prioritizing them. Once you do this, you will truly see the lack of necessity of society's toxic expectations and values.
There are many types of fulfilling cultures to embrace such as community, gratitude, action, celebration and tenderness. Albom talks about how Morrie created his own culture long before he had begun to die: "Discussion groups, walks with friends, dancing to his music in the Harvard Square church. He started a project called Greenhouse, where poor people could receive mental health services. He read books to find new ideas for his classes, visited with colleagues, kept up with old students, wrote letters to distant friends. He took more time eating and looking at nature and wasted no time in front of TV sitcoms or 'Movies of the Week.' He had created a cocoon of human activities -- conversation, interaction, affection -- and it filled his life like an overflowing soup bowl." How could that not just make you want to really truly live?
When you can, try to get out a piece of paper and pen or just open your notes app and start putting down what you wish society valued. Then start living it and be that change that you want to see! You can write them on sticky notes and put them in places you see often, set reminders on your phone, make to do lists to make sure you carry some of them out every day or keep a journal or other type of collection to remind you of what you have done and are proud of.
I really hope this was of some inspiration to you and I can tell you that I have begun my list already :)
Sending you all lots of love & hugs,
Katie ♡
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