Rue

Tag: books

  • Bird Wings

    Hello, Lavenders,

    How was your first week of 2025?

    Yesterday, I went to watch Flow (2024), a film I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. There’s no cinema near my college, so I haven’t been able to watch films as often as I used to. But now that I’m on break, I finally had the chance to go. I’ve been waiting to see Flow before it left theatres. The reviews were glowing, and I didn’t want to miss it. I found a small independent cinema, and the moment I walked in, it felt like home.

    I grew up on a little island where the animal population outnumbered the humans. We didn’t have big cinemas, only small independent ones. I used to take an hour-long bus ride every weekend with my friend to watch films. We were in our film buff phase back then, watching nearly every release that came out. Those bus rides were long, but we loved them. We’d talk about the films all the way home — what we liked, what we didn’t, what the director could have done differently. As we grew older, things changed. Life got busier. Exams, new responsibilities, different paths. The one of us moved to the other side of the island, making it harder to meet. Our trips became less frequent. But even now, whenever we meet, we always make time for a film. It’s our little ritual, a reminder of the days we shared popcorn, seeing who could fit more in their mouth at once and ending up choking from laughing too hard.

    Watching Flow reminded me of that.

    The film was beautiful. There was no dialogue, yet it spoke louder than words. And it stayed with me long after the screen faded to black. There were no humans in the film, but every wave, every crack in the earth, every storm felt profoundly human. It showed how we try to conquer nature without ever realising we’re part of it. How we take and take, blind to the damage, until everything stands on the edge of collapse. And how, in the end, it takes sacrifice to bring balance back to the world.

    For some reason, when I think of humanity’s habit of taking too much and leaving things broken, I’m reminded of Bird Wings by Valium Aggelein — a side project of Duster. The song carries a kind of sadness that lingers, mourning what’s already lost, while holding on, desperately, to what little remains.

    Thank you for stopping by my little lavender fields.

    God bless and goodbye!

    ~Rue

  • Hello From the Other Side

    Hello Lavenders,

    Happy Thursday and Happy New Year.

    I’m sorry for not uploading yesterday—it’s my fault for missing the first post of the year. I hope to become more punctual as the year progresses. To explain a little, I’ve been very sick. I thought a cosy day in my blanket fort would help me recover, but instead it got worse. I’m feeling a little better now, though I can’t say I’m fully recovered yet. Starting the year with an illness isn’t ideal, but maybe it means I’ll have better health in the months ahead—that’s my hope, at least.

    In my last blog, I mentioned starting Impossible Creatures. Although being unwell has limited my progress, I managed to read a bit today. The book’s reputation for exquisite writing is well-deserved—each sentence is written with such care that it’s genuinely mesmerising. I’m still far from finishing, so it may be too early to judge, but so far, it’s shaping up to be a book worth recommending. Once I’ve finished it, I’ll share my final thoughts.

    But let’s put my excitement about the book aside for now—today, I want to talk about my New Year’s resolutions for 2025.

    As I mentioned in my last blog, 2024 was such a whirlwind year, and I believe 2025 to be no different.To better prepare, I’ve made a few promises to myself:

    1. Pursuing my dream
      I’ve been wanting to talk about this, but I hesitate to get too personal (though I suppose I already have). Like many college freshmen, I’ve struggled with figuring out what I want from life and where I should go. Lately, though, a dream has started to take shape, and I can feel its pull. The only problem is, I’ve been too afraid to take the first step. Yet, over winter break, I realised that fear doesn’t go away on its own. Life moves forward whether we’re ready or not, and I don’t want to stand still any longer.
    2. Documenting my life
      This blog is part of it, but I also want to make journaling a regular habit. I know it’s a common resolution—and one that’s easy to abandon. Maybe I’ll struggle too. But these years, my time in college and early adulthood, won’t come around again. Every moment matters, even the small ones. I want to take more photos, write more journals, and share my emotions more. So when the present becomes the past, and memories begin to fade, I’ll have something to look back on—something that reminds me of who I was and what these moments meant. Too often, I hold my thoughts back, afraid of saying the wrong thing or stumbling over my words. This year, I want to let go of that fear and let my voice be heard.
    3. Watching more films
      There was a time when I was a film buff and watched many movies, but recently I’ve been consumed by reading. I’d like to return to my love of films. When I first arrived here, I was amazed by the sheer number of English books compared to what was available back home, so I read voraciously, as if making up for lost time. But now I want to find balance and enjoy both books and films.
    4. Letting go and trusting God
      I’ve always worried too much, trying to control everything as if the weight of the world rests on me alone. This year, I want to trust God more. To let go of what I can’t carry and give it to Him.

    I hope 2025 is a year full of hope and love for all of you.

    Thank you for stopping by my little lavender field.

    God bless and goodbye!

    ~Rue