A short missive this week.
Luna // 11 Months // On Transitions
Luna is now 11 months old, only a few weeks from her birthday, and I'm astonished by how rapidly she seems to acquire new skills and reach new milestones on the journey from baby to toddler.
She understands what play is now. She mimics my actions and sounds, hunts me down when I turn a corner to play peekaboo, and staggers over to me on the couch, delighted when I acknowledge her with a wide smile.
Sometimes I say a word, and she says it right back.
She is eating meals with us now. She has tasted Korean barbecue, smash burgers, fish with guacamole. She no longer requires her own special food prepared for her, but can instead just eat what we eat.
Sometimes I go to feed her a piece of something, and she takes it right from my hands.
She is starting to recognize that her toys are just that: her toys. She is beginning to grasp that blocks are for stacking, magnets are for connecting, water is for splashing.
Sometimes I try to pick up a toy, and it's already in her little hands.
She is eager to explore the world, and is taking steps on her own. She likes to walk from the coffee table to the couch, the dining table to the piano. Each day the gaps between these objects widen as she grows bolder in the steps she takes.
Sometimes I hold her hand to steady her, and feel her let go completely.
She is changing so fast, growing and learning at a dizzying pace.
Sometimes I look at her and no longer see a baby, but instead, a toddler looking back at me — and I know that this is still only the beginning.
What I Read
At the beginning of the year I resolved to read fiction, but January saw little.
A friend's suggestion led me to The Midnight Library - a much needed course correction. The book follows an aimless young woman who feels she has somehow reached a definitive dead end in life, and finds herself transported to a liminal space containing countless shelves stacked with books, each representing an entirely alternate life she potentially could have lived if she had just made a few different pivotal choices at critical junctures along the way.
In living them, she rethinks regret. An imaginative and emotionally resonant exploration of the roads not taken, and what meaning and fulfillment really mean to us. Would recommend.
What I Watched
I decided to fully utilize the immersive capabilities of the Vision Pro by watching the spectacle that is Rogue One. Viewing the film's epic space battles and sweeping star-studded vistas within the 'spatial environment' of the moon was incredible - whenever the camera pulled back to reveal a wide shot of the galaxy in all its grandeur, I saw stars stretching across my entire field of vision, surrounding me completely.
It was a literally breathtaking experience at times, though the first half of the film failed to really captivate me. It wasn't bad by any means, it just seemed more focused on methodically introducing a multitude of characters and problems without weaving them into a compelling narrative. But the second half? Top notch. Each frenetically paced battle sequence and heart-pounding ground confrontation was portrayed with a riveting sense of high stakes and urgency, really making you feel the human cost of every downed fighter pilot or trooper lost on the battlefield. This is the type of emotionally impactful galactic war that I've always wanted from Star Wars but rarely gotten.
Gareth Edwards has crafted a number of films over the years that I've greatly enjoyed, and watching this has made me place The Creator very high on my watchlist.
That's all for now,
From the present moment,
