Introducing the Crumbs of Sanity

Hi, I’m Violet!

I came to Fika to step back, pause, write, and make sense of it all.
I came here to write out my moments of mess and magic and mold them into crumbs of sanity to share with you.
I came here to read.

What I do

I read a lot. Reading is knowledge and knowledge is power.

My then-5-year-old daughter learned this when she read an advert for Christmas shopping while sitting on a toilet at my mother’s house and inferred from the message that Father Christmas is not real.

My favourite film

Les Fabuleux Destins d’Amélie de Montmartre. I can relate to Amélie, I have been having similar musings about people, buildings, and objects. I’m the random lady complimenting your sunglasses or earrings in the line at the supermarket checkout. I’m the lady smiling at your kid on the bus.

My love for murder mysteries compels me to mention Knives Out!

My favourite character

Hercules Poirot as portrayed by David Suchet. I would love to be his Captain Hastings.

Why wouldn’t I want to be the Greatest Detective himself, you ask? The only thing Hercule and I have in common is that we both get deathly seasick just from looking at a boat. I relate much more to Cpt. Hastings. We’re both extroverted, caring, and dying to admire the Herculeses of the world.

What makes me cry

Everything and anything. Sometimes, my eyes well up when I see a medical helicopter flying over my head because I know someone out there is having the worst day of their life. If you cry, I cry too. I cry at movies and songs, I cry happy tears, and I cry when I’m angry or tired.

And Nessun Dorma sung by Luciano Pavarotti never fails to make me cry either.

My favourite music

Remember the days of our youth when the question “What kind of music do you listen to?” served as a background check for whether you could become friends with the person you’re asking?

Each subculture had its selection of bands, and God help you if you responded with something unexpected or — gasp! — liked multiple genres.

As I went through life, I completely shifted my stance to music: Instead of listening to one type of music and bending my mood and worldview to it, I now listen to a colorful range of various genres that I select as my mood dictates.

LoFi Girl for work. Powerful voices when I want to feel goosebumps on my forearms and tears in my eyes. Rap when I’m cleaning or doing laundry (I’m as surprised as you are, believe me). Riffy guitars for the audio experience. Something spiffy to keep my running rhythm up. Something groovy when I want to dance with my kids.

I’m happiest when…

I see my kids excited about something.

Mother’s Day 2024. My eldest (then-10yo) and middle (then-8yo) daughter plotted a surprise. They gave me strict orders not to get out of bed that Sunday. The two of them prepared a lovely breakfast, complete with a home-made latte (milk frother is the best thing in our house!), a tiny glass of water as goes with coffee at proper cafés, and two neatly arranged oat cookies they’d made with my husband the day before.

While all this was lovely, what I enjoyed most was the hour after when they excitedly told me every detail about their planning: how they agreed on their to-do list and who wrote it, how they had to hide the oat cookies before they all got eaten, how they couldn’t figure out the coffee maker but persevered… They were almost vibrating with their clandestine triumph, savouring how emotional I got over their hand-made Mother’s Day cards and the sweet messages in them.

They were both so happy about how happy they’d made me — I hope I never forget this. I hope that one of my last thoughts when I’m on my deathbed, hopefully a long time from now, is their shining eyes and glowing excitement of this day.

What makes me laugh

I’m a language nerd and I married one, too. The puns that make us laugh would make your ears bleed.

What I write about

I went through burnout when I had three small kids at home and two very different jobs during the later Covid era, and was fortunate enough to claw my way back again.

I write about how not to drown in all the advice about productivity and time management because simple principles were my lifeline away from burnout.

I write about appreciating my place in life now - I spent so much time on the journey to get here that now that I have arrived, I find myself lost.

And I will probably write something about running, because that’s all I think about these days.

Thank you for reading this far, have a lovely day! :-)

Credits:
- I originally wrote excerpts of this article for a Medium publication E3 in May 2024, edited by the amazing Malky McEwan.
- Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash