STEEPED BY SAMIA #29 | 03.28.24
Finding themes of Spring — recollection, re-imagination, and more.
I love the transition to Spring season. More daylight, sunny days, and new flowers popping up. Trees half bare and half laden with green leaves. Ramadan, New Years in many cultures, the March Equinox. I am a Spring baby, and the liminality of this time is so me.
March wasn’t particularly noteworthy. I am steeped in my freelance projects and going on walks when I can. My Raynaud’s flare-ups are starting to settle down, bless. I took a fun writing class with Kundiman on braided narratives. I briefly lost my wallet and a kind stranger turned it in to library’s front desk.
So, for this Steep On This List, I reflect on what I’ve read and watched this month — all things that I’ve linked to the theme of Spring. 🌸
I. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
🔗 Quick Link: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
My friend Eo recommended Braiding Sweetgrass to me, sometime last year. Fast-forward to the beginning of this year, my brother picked it up from the bookstore for a work book club he’s part of (soo wholesome). It’s exactly what I needed to read. As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves teachings of life, nature, spirituality, and more into this lush and insightful book.
There’s a whimsical part from Kimmerer’s childhood about wild strawberries:
“You could smell ripe strawberries before you saw them, the fragrance mingling with the smell of sun on clamp ground. It was the smell of June, … and the Strawberry Moon, ode’mini-giizis. I’d lie on my stomach in my favorite patches, watching the berries grow sweeter and bigger under the leaves. Each tiny wild berry was scarcely bigger than a raindrop, dimpled with seeds under the cap of leaves.”
— Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
II. Inuyasha (2000)
🔗 Quick Link: https://www.netflix.com/title/70204995
I watched Inuyasha for the first time recently. And wow, it is definitely a favorite now! It itched a distinct craving for early 2000s anime with action, romance, and sprawling adventure. When Kagome goes back in time to the demon-filled Sengoku period of Japan, she learns that she is the reincarnation of a powerful priestess.
Megan Thee Stallion, in an interview, said that Kagome is the #1 Anime Hot Girl. I can defs see why! She is fierce, real, allows herself to feel + express contrasting things, and just wants to go to school but also fight evil demons with her new friends and hang with this guy, Inuyasha, who annoys her and gives her butterflies.
How does this connect to Spring? In Inuyasha, there are so many sprawling animations of majestic forests and swaying cherry blossoms. Places that are now houses and buildings in the present day world of Inuyasha. It reminds me of the acres of orchards that stood, years before my house was built, here on Ohlone land.
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III. Toni Morrison Documentary: The Pieces I Am (2019)
🔗 Quick Link: https://www.netflix.com/title/81074570
I mentioned the Toni Morrison documentary on my first Steep On This List, but I rewatched it this month. What does it mean to live an expansive and literary life? This is something I ask myself sometimes. Toni Morrison’s life story, renowned novels, and work as an editor uplifting Black writers & organizers is something you need to steep in.
In the documentary, poet Sonia Sanchez says:
“In order to survive, we should re-read Toni every 10 to 15 years, to reimagine ourselves on this American landscape. Not to reinvent ourselves, but to reimagine.”
— Sonia Sanchez
Some related reading I’ve enjoyed: Toni Morrison’s essays, speeches, and meditations can be found in The Source of Self-Regard. Toni Morrison and Sonia Sanchez were both interviewed in a 1983 anthology called Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate.
IV. House & Garden UK’s Design Notes Series
🔗 Quick Link: Design Notes YouTube series playlist
Interior design YouTube channels like this one remind me of both the blossoming and cozy, gloomy parts of Spring. House & Garden UK has the most lush cottages and Victorian houses with sprawling rose gardens. I can appreciate the affinity for maximalism throughout the interiors in this series. Lots of cozy furniture, layers of stripes and intricate floral patterns, gallery walls with mis-matched frames, and more.
This is a glorious one from the series — an 18th century shop, with an upstairs living space:
Let me know what books & TV shows you snacked on this month! —S.A.
💫 Catch Up:
02.20.24 | My mid-20’s renaissance with Shoujo manga
STEEPED BY SAMIA #28: Lovesick Alley, the joy of escapism, & falling in love (with life).
💌 About This Blog:
Steeped by Samia is a space where I can simmer on thoughts & curiosities about life, liminal spaces, digital culture, & more. Far too often, my writing ideas fizzle out in energy; I never get to see them to their full potential. While building my rhythm with writing, I want to share these stories with you.
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