Here and Now

I am currently in the process of figuring out how to manage this blog, that is, figuring out what to post and when to post it. My goal is to write five posts a week. I am saying this, of course, as I enter the busiest weeks of term, but five posts a week remains my goal.

In thinking about why I started New Woman Old World and what I want to do to with it, I realized that one of my goals throughout the process of relocating is to be in the moment and that New Woman Old World would have a part to play in keeping me grounded in the (to use a rather overused and buzz-wordy phrase) “here and now.” I have been thinking about why exactly I want to document this period of my life for, as a fairly private person, I have been feeling a bit strange about my desire and my decision to begin writing about my life on the internet. In thinking about all this, it struck me that the process of documentation demands a certain attention to the details (both material and emotional) of what one is experiencing and that the process of documenting, of taking pictures and regularly writing posts about this transition, might help ground me in my life at the moment. Yes, a part of me is (preemptively) mourning the change and what I will leave behind and, as discussed in Friday’s post, that is okay, but I am also here, in Toronto, now. I do have lots to look forward to in the future and a lot to sort out, but I am currently surrounded by the people and places I know I will miss, so the smart thing to do would be to enjoy being where I am, now.

So, in the spirit of the above, as a (sort of) side project of this blog I would like to document Toronto as I know it: my neighborhood, my favorite places, U of T etc. When I move, I will do the same thing as I explore my new town.

Here are two pictures of my cat, Rasmus, who I rescued as a kitten a year and a half ago. Truly, I think we can all learn a lot from cats in their ability to thoroughly and unapologetically indulge in the pleasures of the moment.

Ras, sleeping sitting up