David Johnson

Monday 8th July, 2024

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Maui. I pressed pause on this newsletter last week. I had returned to Maui a handful of days beforehand, and a combination of the travel and jet lag meant that I was exhausted, my body clock was all over the place and I had not shared much on my blog. So for those reasons I decided to give myself a break for a week.

The return to Maui after three months away I have found interesting to watch. The only expression that I can think to use is culture shock. I have tried to just let that feeling sit inside me, recognize its presence and try as best I can not to react to it. By that I mean that immediately upon landing and experiencing this uncomfortableness to being back here, I could have kicked back against my return. To call out, whether to myself or others, that which I was missing or favored from my time in Europe. I’ve tried to sit in my gratitude for what I have in my life, both here and in Europe…none of that escapes me…and see how these feelings develop over time with being back on island.

I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. Visa issues see to that. So Maui is where I am based right now. I also always think that constantly speaking to one’s perceived preferences of one thing or place over another gets a little tiring to listen to after a while and doesn’t win me any friends. That and I deplete myself with my own infighting.

So for now I am just noticing this feeling in me, noticing it as a new companion and seeing where it takes me. It has lessened a little with time being back here, and I think as time goes on I’ll explore this more in a post to my blog.

At the end of this letter I have included one short post from my week off. The feelings shared in it have sat with me and so it felt appropriate to include it here.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

19th June, 2024

Manuel Moreale’s recent post on Celebrating Failure resonated with me. I’ve read it a few times now.

You can ingest only so many success stories before starting to feel bad for not being one of them. It’s partly why social media mostly sucks. It’s performative. Everyone is showing the best parts of their lives while the shitty moments are kept private, away from public eyes.

At times I feel as though the online world shows so much of the celebratory fun and fireworks - holding a hand up to recognize that I get sucked into doing that. But perhaps sadly, life isn’t always about celebration. There is grind, suck and failure.

If I don’t share failure or struggle, some comes from wanting to keep things private, other comes from shame.