Sum of Everything

Work. It has been my observation that this word, simple and unassuming as it may seem, is rather subjective and its meaning relies heavily on user. Usually, it is used in the context of jobs done to earn a living. The prompts for this week too, were in line with this and nudged us to think about the trajectory our careers have taken - first job, most satisfying job, job that felt draining, job you stayed in longer than you should have, and while I do have enough and more to say about that aspect of my life, sometime during the week I had an epiphany which led to a very different theme for this article. Housework - the unpaid work we do that often goes unnoticed, unacknowledged and unappreciated, although one could argue that a lot of work at a paying job could be unacknowledged and unappreciated as well, but, as usual, that’s fodder for another day, another article. Household chores are seldom thought of as "work" in the traditional meaning of the word. Indeed, it is usuall...

If you have read my previous post, you know that I am participating in a 52 week writing challenge starting the first week of January 2023, which will, if the course meets its goal, help me get to know my authentic self. Since I am going to be publishing my largely unedited musings here, you also will become closely acquainted with my authentic self. What a scary thought! So here goes - Week 1: Roadblocks . It appears the designer of the course knew what they were doing. With 'Roadblocks' as the theme for the first week of this challenge, it really does promptly think through all the confidence issues one may be facing, having taken on the mammoth task of sticking to a course this long. 52 weeks is a long time to dedicate to anything, especially where there is creativity involved, in addition to effort, with no external motivation. This is a commitment to a course with no exams and no one to hold me accountable except myself? It’s the stuff of my nightmares! And with that, I ...

I recently came across a targeted ad on Instagram for a writing challenge that offered 52 prompts - 1 every week that allows you to dive deep into yourself and churn out written material.  Now this is technically a self paced course, so while it is supposed to last a year, suppose you had to take a break because say you were writing super important professional level exams mid way through the year and did not have the time to actually sit and write anything, you could skip those two weeks, and play catch-up later, or not as you wished. This seemed too good an opportunity to pass up and since it had come up towards the end of the year, it seemed like the perfect way to kick off the new year. So this is the introductory post for what is going to be (hopefully) 52 weekly posts on topics that are extremely self exploratory and introspective. I may write intermittently on other topics as well, depending on my mood and how much the creative juices are flowing through me, but this course ...