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Devi Abraham

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Hi hello it’s me, back writing after a long time

Hi hello it’s me, back writing after a long time.

It’s Thanksgiving Thursday, and for the last six years, that’s meant an early wake up, and a drive to Queen Victoria Market in the city for a turkey.

Today I fed the baby at 5:15, and drove in listening to a magical Christmas playlist by @thelazygenius, and it hit me: This is my favorite part of getting ready for Thanksgiving. This early morning drive.

It made me think of all you introverts out there who do love the gathering and hosting and quality time with the people you love (or maybe you don’t love all of this - that’s fine). But in your heart of hearts, the dearest moments are the ones in the quiet places, when your dirty car becomes a cathedral, and wonder streams in the first rays of morning light.

I can’t tell you how deficient I used to feel when those moments hit me. I should love the time with my family more. I should love getting to serve others. Etc etc etc.

But the truth is for years, I’ve loved this early morning trek. I love the market before it gets busy. I love that I’m only there for 15 minutes to get what I need before heading home.

Today I embraced it and embraced that part of myself who needs those quiet, simple moments of solitude.

Hey introverts… we can go to the dinner and party and have a great time. And we can look forward to the 10 minutes of solitude when it comes because we know it’s going to fill us up before the next thing.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Be kind to the introverts at your table and maybe get them some earplugs.

#thelifechangingmagicofgrowingup

Day 8: Outside my comfort zone #10days10books Th

Day 8: Outside my comfort zone #10days10books

The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is a dystopia, and this is not my genre. Yes I’ve read 1984 and The Handmaids Tale, but this one is different.

Futuristic. Bleak. Let’s put it like this, it turns out a Black woman writing in the early 90s has a different view of what can go wrong than say George Orwell did.

I read this book while I was in the emergency room for 24 hours early in my pregnancy. Its set in 2024 😳 😳in a world ripped apart by climate change, corporate greed, and dysfunctional government 😳 😳 😳.

The sequel, which I have not read but read about it in Wikipedia spoilers and all because I am THAT person, has the president of the US running on a campaign slogan of (take a deep breath): Make America Great Again.

It was published in 1998. What I’m trying to say is that Octavia Butler has a view of the world that is sharp and devastating in its accuracy.

Not an easy read, but it’s a great story. And I’ll say it again. A Black woman’s dystopia is not the same as a white guy’s dystopia.

#bookstagram #octaviabutler #parableofthesower #bipoc #booklife

Day 6: A book in your favorite genre I don’t ha

Day 6: A book in your favorite genre

I don’t have a favorite genre, but the books I want to read over and over again tend to be funny, a good time.

We came across the Xenophobes guides when we lived in Switzerland (the Swiss one is just priceless), so we got the Swedish one before we moved to Sweden.

I love these guides so much because they do what funny writing does. Tell the truth. Without taking its subject matter too seriously. (Swipe if you want evidence.)

If you’re moving somewhere or in a new-to-you country, I highly recommend.

Now tell me, what’s your favorite funny book? (And before you ask if I’ve read David Sedaris, no I haven’t.)

#10days10books #bookstagram #sweden #xenophobesguidetotheswedes #booklife #booklover

Day 7: A book about my home There is Something I

Day 7: A book about my home

There is Something I Have to Tell You by Madhubahashini Disanayaka Ratnayaka

The nature of home is that you experience it, you don’t pick and choose what you want. Thats not my experience of Sri Lanka, and I think that’s why I loved this book so much.

My story is, I think, a standard migrant story. I left my country of birth at two and don’t speak any of its languages. In this way my experiences of Sri Lanka were chosen for me on visits back with my parents. Later I chose my own experiences when I traveled back by myself, on my honeymoon, and with my children.

This novel is the first and only story I’ve read that is a Sri Lankan story. It’s told from multiple ethnic viewpoints, touching on major points in Sri Lanka’s depressing history, and it is just a good, readable story.

As a novel, I loved it.

As a Sri Lankan who never got to claim Sri Lanka as a home, it was essential reading. It’s a reminder of the gift books are to our lives. They can give us a past we did not know, they can bring that past into our present, and they can help make us whole as we walk into the future.

If you grew up without that sense of home in a place, I recommend reading fiction set in the places where you did or did not grow up. It’s a wonderful way to restore connection.

#bookstagram #booklife #srilanka #srilankadaily #novels #bipocauthors

Day 4: Shaped my worldview @christiepurifoy two b

Day 4: Shaped my worldview

@christiepurifoy two books formed my vision for what the home can be. When you grow up in a version of white evangelicalism that centered a woman’s life around prescribed domestic labor, there is baggage. A lot of baggage.

But Christie’s words and metaphors reoriented me toward the value of creating safe, beautiful spaces, drawing me into a broader imagination of what the work of placekeeping (her word) can be. It gave me permission to see this as valuable work that anyone can do.

I *hate* the way white evangelicalism took the idea of the home and bludgeoned a generation of women with it. There was no room for men, women who worked, people who never married, or untraditional families.

The truth about home is that anyone can make it, and it is so desperately needed in our communities today.

#10days10books #thelifechangingmagicofgrowingup #bookstagram #weareplacemakers #booklife

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