Life + Culture

Language Learning – Update 2

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In the last post, I mentioned that I’ve been struggling with a lot. So I’ve had to realize that I cannot keep up with the pace of language learning that I’d like.

The Coursera class didn’t work out as I’d hoped and learning Hangeul is on the back burner at this point. My focus is on French.

I’m still using Duolingo every day and have other forms of French immersion that help. French Teacher Carlito‘s newsletter is great! Plus, I’ve loaded up my YouTube and Instagram feeds with wonderful bite-sized French lessons from several people.

With all that I have on my plate, that’s about all that I can handle. After reading a recent blog post where I encountered an English word that was new to me, equiponderate, I decided that I need to cut myself some slack.

There is no deadline for becoming fluent in French. I have a goal and I’m doing the best I can. It takes a lot of time and practice to become fluent in another language. Life is throwing a lot my way right now, so I can’t progress the way I could if things were different.

I’m fluent in English and have a fairly decent vocabulary. It’s taken decades to reach this point and I’m still learning new English words. New English words keep being invented. Language learning is a lifelong journey, so I have to keep reminding myself to be patient.

Maybe you’re going through something similar. Remember to be patient with yourself and keep going. There is no race and live life one day at a time.

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Image: Wordnik

Caregiving is Hard

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Back at the end of November, when I decided to blog twice a week, I didn’t know what life had in store. During the holiday season, both my mom and brother started having increased health issues. Things have gotten progressively worse since then. While they don’t live with me, I’m the primary caregiver for both of them. Caregiving is hard.

I try to do all I can to help them, but it also takes an emotional toll. It hurts to see them hurting. And there is nothing that I can do about that.

My ability to cope with it all has diminished significantly. I don’t know that my twice a week blogging schedule is sustainable. Not that anyone is forcing me. It was a promise to myself first. But I have to focus on what I can do. I’m reaching out to to others and seeking resources to help with everything.

For now, I’ll shoot for posting once a week on Sundays. I don’t want to blog just to blog and not feel genuine in terms of my writing. I strive to create content that is not only interesting and helpful for me, but for others as well. When I don’t have the energy to write what I want, I don’t want to to just post filler. Which some posts feel like, even if they are kind of fun.

Maybe this is part of my answer in terms of deciding whether to continue blogging. I’m letting time be my guide as I continue this caregiving journey.

Quote of the Week: Tommaso Landolfi

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“I learned about the only two remedies for pain, sadness, paturnias and similar sores of the human heart: they are chocolate and time … I mean that when you feel sad and grief, you just need to eat a little of chocolate or wait a while.”    

                                                                                                   ~ Tommaso Landolfi

 

Blogging in 2024

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blogging in 2006

Blogging in 2024 versus blogging in 2006. It’s a whole different world.

This picture above is how my old blog, Anali’s First Amendment, looked back then. This was the first capture of it on the Wayback Machine on August 11, 2006. My first post was on April 29th of that year, so it took a little while for it to register on the internet.

I was still using an alias and my picture didn’t show my whole face. This blog has been through so many iterations that I forgot what it used to look like!

We often revisit the past when thinking about what we want in the future. Doing NaBloPoMo last year was part of that process for me. When I finished, I decided that I would write twice a week, Wednesday and Sunday.

So far I have, but I’m starting to wonder why. And I’m starting to wonder why I’m continuing to blog. Before when these thoughts crept up, something would happen that made me feel like I wanted to continue. But I’ve been feeling this way for a bit and nothing has changed this time.

April 29th will be 18 years blogging. When people turn 18, in most places, that means they have reached the age of majority and can be considered an adult. The adulthood of this blog might look different.

I’ll still always write, but writing doesn’t have to be here. Time will tell.

Photo Exhibit: As We Rise

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted about my day trip to Salem. Strolling around the city during the holiday season and enjoying a local cafe.

The reason for the trip was to see the photography exhibit, As We Rise, before it left the Peabody Essex Museum. It was wonderful and I’m so glad that I got to see it before it ended on December 31st. The description of the exhibit on the website truly intrigued me.

“Explore Black identity through a compelling compilation of photographs from African diasporic culture. Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto, a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent, As We Rise looks at the myriad experiences of Black life through the lenses of community, identity and power.

Organized by Aperture, New York, the exhibition features more than 100 works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States and South America, as well as throughout the African continent. Black subjects depicted by Black photographers are presented as they wish to be seen , recognizing the complex strength, beauty and vulnerability of Black life.”

The exhibit shows ordinary Black people living their lives and reminded me of my own family photos. The exhibit acknowledges the importance of these pictures. Yes, we as a people have been through a lot. There has been struggle. And the struggle continues.

But we are just like any other people. We live our daily lives and have families and friends. We take pride in our work.
We enjoy the simple things and glamour. We are bold and beautiful.


It feels wonderful to see these people just being themselves and living their lives, just like me. It means something to see oneself, depicted in this way. It means something to see oneself portrayed at all. To show that we existed and continue to exist. And that we will exist.

I remember as a kid watching TV shows like Star Trek and being happy that there were Black people in the future. To a certain extent, it’s silly. It wasn’t real. Even so, it mattered.

The text in the picture above, “Identity as Seeing Ourselves” resonates with me in a similar way.

“These photographs are not only about seeing ourselves and our place in the world, but also picturing where we are going.”

This picture above, which represents refusal, is quite interesting. Not something I would display at home. But I like the idea of us as a people being able to have control over whether we are seen or not and how we choose to be seen.

And last, but not least, As We Rise shows Black people at rest and leisure. I loved this portion so much! What’s the point of life if not to enjoy ourselves and relax at least some of the time? Have we not toiled enough?!

An Instagram post by The Nap Ministry for the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says it best.

“The teachings of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have been a North Star in my life since I was in elementary school and obsessively wrote every paper for any class on him until college. I’ve read everything he has written and his work grounds my ethos as a Black Liberation Theologian. As the country honors his legacy and celebrates his birthday, I am deep in meditation about leisure for Black People.

Leisure and the right to simply exist without the constant weight of having to be a tool for production is something Black people have been denied for centuries. It is our divine right to simply be and embody leisure as a human right. These photos of MLK, Jr. on vacation in Jamaica in 1965 are a balm and deep breathing. Radical inspiration for our rest practices. We Will Rest!!”