being here, in england, with less-than-usual phone connectivity and a lot more waiting inherent to the task of hanging out in hospitals, i think i am re-learning patience and the good kind of idleness. the kind where i can put something in a microwave and not feel the intense need to catch up with my entire twitter feed in those four minutes. when i am happy looking at the trees out the window in the ‘golden hour’ instead. the things we all want in this life are simple. first, health. then, love (family, partner, friends, etc.). all of the other things we construct to be “big” are extraneous & often give us more harm than good. it’s the little things like trees or a good joke that really matter. the mundanities matter. they are not tied up in some greater, unreachable goal. they are pure joy.

Gorgeous flowers at Virginia Water (in England!).

the other day, his mom woke me up & I babbled in Russian and asked where I was. I was so tired I thought I would fall asleep on the floor of the shower.

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yesterday, I saw a baby come in with so many tubes to the oncology ward.

this ward also does not own any ketchup.

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happy families are all alike; unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way.

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i’m going to be a pretty good mother someday, but i think i might move to a country with free health care before then. it’s ridiculous to think that in America, getting a disease might not be a death sentence but the hospital bills might as well be.

Just thuggin’ on a bench in the middle of Broadway cause I can

Until August!

islawmix:

Maybe we can finally get rid of that BBC stock image of ‘veils of Muslim world’.

"It feels good to think about you when I’m warm in bed. I feel as if you’re curled up there beside me, fast asleep. And I think how great it would be if it were true."

Haruki Murakami (via hellanne)

(Source: cruhk)

micropolisnyc:

Does the very geography of Manhattan make it more inviting to immigrants and other newcomers? 

The idea came up during a long walk I took down Broadway with Becky Cooper, the author of “Mapping Manhattan,” and Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker, who wrote the introduction. 

“Mapping Manhattan” is a crowdsourcing project that uncovers the intense emotional associations New Yorkers have with the island. Becky wandered about the city, handing out blank maps to people on the street and asking them to scrawl away. She also roped in celebrity contributors, like Yoko Ono and Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio.

Love came up, as did sex, hate, prostitution, death, and Patricia Marx’s lost gloves. 

But on our walk, we kept returning to geography, and the street grid that defines Manhattan.

“The grid plan that makes New York so distinct is one that in a certain sense cancels personality,” said Gopnik. “Whereas Paris and London are both, in a certain sense, organic cities, they’ve grown up over a long period of time. The irrationality of their structure is a reflection of that long history, that’s why you need to take 2 years to learn how to become a taxi driver in London. New York has a super impersonal plan. But it takes on a private impress. That corner on the absolutely rectilinear grid, of 23rd and Broadway, becomes your corner.”

“I feel like the grid pattern actually invites personality,” said Cooper, “because of how non-specific it is. Because the second you come here you feel you own a part of it. There isn’t this barrier to entry, there isn’t this exclusivity of the person who’s grown up here.”

Listen to our full Micropolis conversation here.

And check out Becky Cooper’s “Mapping Manhattan” Tumblr.