Light
Happy Diwali everyone! May the light drive away the demons and darkness and lighten all unpleasant burdens! A dear friend’s mom sent me this diya for Diwali: a silver floating lamp. Isn’t it beautiful?
Speaking of burdens. Things have been awful quiet chez Desiknitter lately because I’ve been so hellishly busy. But speaking also of light, there may well be some at the end of a very long tunnel. Somewhere in the chronology of my classes and the semester, there usually comes a turning point – you enter a familiar century, reach materials you can read backwards and all the people you are talking about in class just seem like old friends, you know them so well. I sigh happily, because an unspoken anxiety that dogs me in the other weeks, despite all my reading and prep, just evaporates and I can babble on happily for hours and don’t feel tense. Does this happen to you? I’ve been teaching for years, but this promises to be a constant feature all through for me.
That happened to me today. This is good because I have two important papers to write from scratch by early December, and I need all the extra time and calm I can get. I am also going to a conference at Madison later this week, where the prospect of meeting some friends, esp. a couple of blogfriends is taking some of the edge off my stress. Mary and Orata, if you’re reading this, please email me your phone numbers!
What’s that you said? Knitting? Fine. My red shawl is in the slog overs stage, progressing miniscule row by miniscule row. I am so obsessed with finishing it that I can’t bear to start anything new. But the end is in sight, my friends, I do believe it will be done this year and then I can re-enter the normal world of worsted wool and stockinette fabric. I swear it, once this is done, I ain’t knitting with lace-weight yarn for a LONG time.
I’m a usually unidentified lurker who’s been enjoying your site for the past year or so – but today’s post made me smile, so I thought I’d write to say thank you. I’m a (newly minted) Asst Prof, struggling through a first term of teaching history and feeling like I might just as well never have done a PhD at all, for all I seem to know about the subjects of my lectures! Am still waiting for the relief of a familiar region, but it’s reassuring to hear even wise and experienced teachers still have unspoken worries about the less familiar centuries!
A very happy Diwali to you and yours!
This post made me smile
I hope you complete the shawl soon to move on to new and exciting project.
Wish you a very Happy Diwali!
What a beautiful lamp. Happy Diwali to you! Good to know that there’s fun things amidst all of the stress and strain.
May all the knit picks and monkey caps come true in your life. In fact, may you be bouncing on a woollen heap.
Thanks so much for decloaking, MUNSHI, and I love your name, because I too
am interested in scribal histories! Congratulations on the new job, and good luck getting through the first year! It gets dramatically better the second time around.
Hey, Ami, I like those customised diwali wishes!
happy diwali (belated)
hope the sweets dint add to the stress
M