Small moments

I’ve been living in upstate New York for a few years. Though I’ve lived in many places, different parts of the world, I’m happy that I exist in a place that keeps me connected to the seasons as they change. It’s how I know time is passing. My memories all are cast in the colours of the landscape, by how warm the air felt, how long the days stretched out.

Most of my adult life has been spent adapting to new places, new environments, new ways of living, the kind of change that teaches you much about yourself if you let it.

Water is heating in the kettle, and I add new green tea leaves to the strainer in my mug. The mug has a translucent pale blue glaze with brighter blue lines painted over its surface and a fingerprint-size chip in the rim. It was made by my father in his workshop that sits across from the house I grew up in. Where he would light incense each morning before starting to work. He sent it to me when I first moved to New York and it has been used almost every day since.

I watch the tea leaves become submerged as I pour the water over, and lean against the counter as they steep. I take a chopstick and stir before waiting for the leaves to settle again. I let the last drops fall in as I take out the strainer and set it aside. My body does this while my mind empties. I let it play out the ritual in the same way time after time.

You can find everything in these moments. Reaching back a lifetime, and into the next day and another. You come back to yourself here.

We are learning now, all of us, about who we are and what we need. Since the start of the pandemic, Kingston has become a haven for people escaping the city, and it is trying to find a balance. It attracts the self-employed, creatives, and people looking for community. But within each house, behind every door, we all are relying on our routines, our small moments of stillness to get by. A lot has been said of the physical effects, the economic changes, but the toll this virus has taken on our mental health is vast and deep. To care for ourselves in the small ways. To give ourselves a moment of space, just to observe how we’re doing. Those things will carry us through.

The creative people in my life have shared with me their versions of these moments. In their words, I found different ways of getting to a similar feeling. A way to be completely present.

• W’s Rayon Linen Relaxed Long Jacket
• W’s Cotton Printed Half Sleeve Long Shirt
• W’s Cotton Seersucker Straight Cropped Pants
• W’s Printed Square Stole
• (HANA TAJIMA FOR UNIQLO)