I’m back to daily life in an apartment, quarantined with just quick forays outside for groceries. With a full week of severe jet lag and plenty of projects and engagements to keep me on my toes, the days are running long and packed. Not much space for adjusting but not much need, either.
Not the plane, clearly. But a sunny day out to Kamakura.
I’m tapping away on my phone in the darkness of the airplane, in the final stages of the long and complicated process of getting myself home.
There were loose ends to tie up, shopping and packing to be done, paperwork to be printed and filled in, covid tests to be taken... that’s in parallel to wondering if I should stay a while longer, while worrying about the EU restrictions that changed right before my departure date. There’s a fair amount of mental fortification needed to get through it but I’m almost home. Just crossing my fingers that it’ll be smooth at Charles de Gaulle!
I’m incredibly fortunate to have been in a position where I could remove myself from the claws of malaise and detachment, long enough to recharge and start nurturing saplings that I’d painstakingly planted in the last few months of 2020. I benefitted greatly from being in a known environment I know like the back of my hand, with access to abundant resources and energy. Now, I’m ready to go home.
Blast from the past: This frozen yogurt was one of my favorite conbini ice creams when I was in high school.
The YouTube-ing continues to be a ton of fun. It nudges me to make more opportunities to cycle in good weather, and the immediate feedback loop for improving any editing skill is gratifying. The GoPro, not so much! The settings don't match my mental model and the fiddliness of the livecam makes it a chore when I just want to hop on the saddle. I barely check the app once I start riding so there's been a lot of un-usable footage and un-recorded stretches of time.
Between the filming and editing, there are a lot of small things that need to be figured out and so much of it is trial and error. I knew there’s a ton I don’t know how to do but I didn’t expect to be making so many mistakes! Yesterday, I deleted a freshly edited video thanks to a series of misunderstandings. A few hours of work gone in five clicks. Oops.
I tend to have high expectations for myself, and have a habit of avoiding real effort if I don’t feel like I can reach a certain level in a short amount of time. All mind games, of course. It’s good practice to be forced to stay a beginner. Making videos is a craft and mastery of any craft takes years.
An unexpected upside of editing is that I get to enjoy that captured moment again and again. I notice new things or new reactions to known things, and this rich layering is a strangely beautiful way to slow down.
All in all, I’m enjoying the process and thankfully there’s enough interest in my “productions” that I get a boost of energy with each shoutout and new subscriber. Publishing at this frequency also stirs my imagination and I surprise myself with the volume of ideas I have for the channel!
Pine and sea
Recently I had the chance to visit a few places I’ve never been to - a constant occurrence in pre-COVID days but something I wasn’t sure if I’d really missed. It’s safe to say that, yes, I do. I feel more like myself when there’s travel and discovery in my daily life. It’s the act of going somewhere but also of coming back. Back to home base, to rest deeply and re-appreciate what I already have.
Notable happenings this week:
We opened registrations for Advanced Facilitation: Liberating Structures Intensive, the Greaterthan course that I’m co-delivering from February. I can’t wait to see what kind of magic will happen once the cohort comes together.
Scheduled the kickoff for a client engagement that I’m working with Alex Simon. We have a hunch that it’s going to be a watershed project for a totally new stream of work. It’s finally time to jump in.
Joined the inaugural general assembly of the Intersection Group of which I’m an Advising Member. There’s an ambitious intellectual effort planned between the eclectic group of core enthusiasts and it’ll be really interesting to see the collisions, slow and fast, that’s bound to happen.
Posted the first English video for my new YouTube channel Bromptomo. I don’t have a personal social media presence in Japanese so this makes it easier to start talking about it publicly. Some warm responses already. I’m having so much fun with this project.
Coordinated a collaboration between AQ and a non-profit that’s doing amazing things. More on this in a few weeks.
An early celebration of my birthday. My sisters gifted me an activity tracker, a slim one that actually fits my tiny wrist. I’m most interested in improving sleep quality by tracking sleep patterns and using the watch as an alarm instead of the phone.
A day trip to Shimizu City in Shizuoka with Sachiko, who showed me around her hometown. It was a beautiful and peaceful place - I’ll add more photos below of Miho-no-Matsubara, which is a majestic stretch of pine trees along the coast. The whole coastline was begging for a cycling adventure. The thing about cycling in Japan is that it includes amazing local food and onsen hot springs. I need to find a way to cycle more in Japan…
Had a wisdom tooth pulled out. It’s been a problematic tooth for a few years and I finally agreed to part ways with this piece of my body. What a brutal act!
Along the Sumida River
We’ve had glorious cold and sunny days here in Tokyo, a combination that makes you breathe deeply to catch the crispness of the air and stop for long moments to bask in the sunlight.
The new bike has give me a new source of energy. I like that it’s a second hand one, broken in and well-maintained, like it was ready to jet as soon as it left the box. The casualness of the folding bike makes for a different type of fun than my road bike, too. The barrier to moving a couple of kilometers is infinitely lower because I have plenty of bag space, not wearing conspicuous cycling gear, and unconcerned about parking. I already made an impromptu detour to pick up sushi for dinner so that counts as #winning in my book!
On the whole I feel restless - ready for activity and not in the mood to overthink all kinds of plans. Next week I’ll be investigating what kind of bets I want to place, and expanding my imagination of distant horizons. To paint some irresponsible, wild and ludicrous scenes and sit with them longer than I’m comfortable with. And then I’ll unravel them with a gentle and playful gaze on myself and the beautiful people that I’m blessed to have in my life, to see what threads I can pull.
Let’s step into a fresh start. Let’s turn the page. Not with vague optimism that things will be better because surely we’ve endured enough, but with the inner strength to find agency in what we can make better, day in and day out. And if small improvements are hard to sustain, a couple of drastic interventions on our environment isn’t a bad idea.
This is a weeknote published on a Friday morning (Jan 1st) to carve out three days to calibrate my inner dialogue before Week 1, 2021. Time is a story we tell ourselves, and I’m determined that 2021 isn’t a dumb continuation of the mushy and bland and stretchy and depressing and confusing blah of last year.
Rode to the river and back on my mother’s tanker of a bike
It took a couple of uncomfortable days to stop feeling unsettled. I’m now sleeping as much as I want (a lot, and it’s not just the jet lag) and sinking into quiet time to read and re-connect with family. I also found a great online deal on a second-hand Brompton bike. I’m really looking forward to learning its ins and outs, riding in Tokyo and bringing it back with me to Paris.
Looking back, my bike-buying process was a mess. A few months ago, I did a ton of research and decided I wanted one and then… I didn’t take the step of buying it. And what happened was like a car stuck in the parking lot with its engine left on. I didn’t drive out and I didn’t turn off the engine, so I just kept using up gas.
A series of events this spring/summer, both pandemic-induced and not, caused an ongoing state of upheaval that really depleted my confidence tank. One of the consequences was not being able to make decisions or take action after I’d made them. Rendering choices through action, no matter how small, generates energy and I haven’t been able to do enough of it in the past few months. The bicycle is one of the simpler examples.
This insight had the power to knock me out of my recent malaise and feeling of helplessness after realizing that 2021 will look quite similar to 2020 in terms of corona risks and constraints. I’m glad for it, and it probably wasn’t a coincidence that these thoughts came while journaling on the riverside, feeling the winter sun and enjoying a cup of hot tea from my trusty thermos.
Making our own fun
It’s been a limbo week, as many people around me wrap up for the holidays, and I ignore my upcoming Tokyo trip like it’s not happening. I’m off to the airport in a few hours, though.
France and Europe in general is not doing well with the second wave and all signs point to Christmas bringing another harsh period. I’m slowly trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we’ll probably be in this lockdown or curfew state for at least the first half of 2021.
And even though I’ve felt distracted and float-y, there were significant happenings and it’s grounding to be able to capture them here.
Kicked off a client assignment with my friend Alex that we’re really excited about. I’m so glad this is the project that we’ll hit the ground running with next year.
Worked on a RFP response with a new set of collaborators. I’m honored to be invited to take part and it’s been a fun process. If we land the assignment, it’ll be a significant marker in my journey as a designer, as it’ll open up a new field of opportunities outside of the realm of my usual corporate consulting. And if we don’t, I’m sure something else will come up!
Got tested for Covid for the first time. It was an antigen test at the pharmacy down the street and I found it a straightforward process that brought a lot of peace of mind.
Wrapped up a book club series for Bruce Mau’s MC24. We were enthralled with our discussions and spent three sessions on this book, extending our time together beyond the initial one-off call that I’d organized. We decided to chose another book and continue with our calls and I’m very glad about that.
Good progress building an upcoming facilitation course that I’m hosting with three friends from next February. This was a beautiful flower that bloomed unexpectedly among the difficulties of the pandemic and I’m still pinching myself that it’s really happening.
Signed up for a personal/leadership development course for next spring, with the possibility to extend it into getting trained and certified as a coach if things gel. It’s quite a big commitment but I’m ready to take this step.
Finale of Mandalorian 😉 I’m not particularly invested in the story but it was fun to have a weekly story that we discuss with friends. Haven’t had that since hosting weekly watch parties for GoT last year.
Hallo to you, too.
Against the odds, a few saplings have started to sprout for next year. I appreciate the little bubbles of happy to play with, during these days when it’s so hard to sustain excitement or any kind of focus.
I set up a new Roam database to start my “digital garden” in earnest, and have been having a blast writing and linking nodes of thought. It’s like having a blank canvas that only takes a tap to wipe clear or break off into new sections. I didn’t think the near-zero cost would make such a difference but this is addictive! Figuring out the bi-directional links digitally helps so much to make the links in my thinking. The Roam site is private as I prototype form and workflows but I’d like to make it accessible soon.
The other highlight of this week was that the confinement rules have been alleviated so that we can exercise out to 20km for three hours, instead of 1km for one. I’m so glad to be able to properly cycle again - relieved, too. There were plenty of people out on the cycling paths. I’d have liked to say everyone was in good spirits but well, a couple of entitled old farts were annoyed at how crowded it was. Too bad they can’t direct their opinions to policy makers so we get more space for cyclists in general. Anyway we had wonderful weather and I’m going to get a few more long rides in the cold sunny weather before winter sets in.
