Tiny mini break with "the Queen"...

 ...because it's badly needed.

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by PAM

Relaxing at my sister's 'plantita' haven...

'no place like home', indeed!

I spent the last three weeks or so mostly 'imprisoned' in my 'little office' in my bedroom - working on a number of tasks and a 'major, major' deadline, which I, thankfully, beat last Friday.  

I still work from home most of the week.  My real office at home is located at our attic... but I've been too 'in the zone' lately to even climb the attic.  The ideas come rushing early in the morning... by 4:00 a.m., and I feel that climbing the spiral stairs to the attic would 'spill' the ideas from my head. Hahaha... So, after my morning prayers, I immediately move from my bed into my office chair, and allow my keyboard and little notebook to catch the ideas... first, as jumbled words that make no sense.  By noon, and after three mugs of coffee and a quick breakfast bite though, the words 'rearrange themselves' in sentences and paragraphs that make some sense that they actually excite me!  The excitement usually burst to a surge in energy that I usually dissipate to a 20- to 30-minute exercise... with BTS music, what else!  Haha...  After breaking a sweat, I go for a quick trip to the shower.  All that make for my noontime break... and then, I continue working with a refreshed mind.  This time, I let my imagination guide me to organize the burst of ideas in the morning... and transform them to a professionally composed material that is worth-sharing with colleagues at work.

And then, the evening comes... by then, I'd be too exhausted to do anything else but eat, browse the www for a little bit... and fall asleep.  The whole cycle repeats itself.  Today, however, it's different.  I woke up early in the morning, and went for the 6:00 a.m. Sunday Mass as I usually do.  And, I resolved to NOT DO ANY WORK!  So, after Mass, I had a good breakfast with my sister, and just spent the whole morning hanging out at our front yard. My sister is a 'plantita' (a person with green thumb and uses it to grow plants with much gusto).  I enjoyed the cheerful chirping of the birds atop the tree, and just soaked up the sun 'peeping shyly' from the thick dark clouds and the cool after-rain breeze.  It was good!  I felt that my mind got refreshed. If the bounce of my hair is any indication that the 'tiny mini break' did my body well, then, the whole decision to abstain from work is very good! 

Sometimes, you just need to say 'no' to the constant 'nagging' of work in your brain.  Just because you work from home does not mean that you need to work yourself to death lest others think that you are not working hard enough.  At the end of the day, it's your output and the outcomes of your hard work that matter and the real indicator of your efforts.  No matter how much we enjoy our work, rest is still necessary.  We can work very hard to our heart's desire, but we also need to give ourselves time to recuperate.  This is what the weekend is for.

And so, today, I will continue indulging myself to things that make my soul sing.  The songs from a previous post (on BTS, who else?) still hum in my head, especially "Spring Day".  So, today, I take advantage of my new-found empowerment against the bondage of unchecked enslaving passion for work by enjoying more of BTS's music.

♫ "You know it all, you're my best friend... 

the morning will come again

No darkness, no season can last forever."🎜

 

That music video (MV) afforded BTS the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Award (MAMA) for Best Music Video.  This is their first win in a five-year winning streak: 2017- "Spring Day", 2018 - "Idol", 2019 - "Boy with Luv feat. Halsey", 2020 - "Dynamite", 2021 - "Butter"; and their second nomination in the same award category.  Their first nomination was in 2016 for the "Blood, Sweat and Tears" MV.  To date, these make BTS the winningest group in the history of MAMA in this category (5 wins), and they have garnered the most number of nominations (6), too, in this category.

Personally, "Spring Day" reminds me of my "birthday post" in this blog from July 2020 - at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  In that post, I let off steam from the pandemic-induced stress, and I also spoke about the promise of spring.  It turned out that that was the last birthday that I celebrated with my father. He passed in December that year. He was not afflicted with COVID-19 but his old age-induced sickness was aggravated by the limited access to health care that time due to the pandemic. After my father passed, I became very attached to this song by BTS. While it is quite sad for me, I continue to listen to this song... especially when I am under a lot of stress and I need to dwell in the warmth of my father's love to keep going such as in my recent post here. 

The song almost accurately describes the longing for a loved one... and the hope that someday, such longing will be soothed by eventually meeting that loved one once again. The superb rendition of the group of the beautiful lyrics, on an easy-on-the-ear melody, is remarkable. The blend of the melancholic singing of the vocal line that exposes raw emotions and the moody rendition of the rap line of verses that attempt to mask pain with toughness grips the listener's longing heart in a tug-o-war between vulnerability and emotional resilience.  If one listens to the song, one will be left in emotional pieces... but when one watches the video, one will find solace in its hopeful theme.  The group conveyed hope effectively, and it is amazing!  This is probably the reason why the group won the MAMA Best Video for this one - very well deserved, indeed!      

So, I thank BTS for this song, especially the brilliant RM and SUGA, and their music industry 'father', Bang Si-hyuk (or "Hitman" Bang), for composing and producing this song.  As of this writing, the song has not fallen out of the Melon Music Top 100 Charts since its release as the title track of the BTS album, "You never walk alone" in 2017.  As such, ARMY fondly refer to it as "the Queen"... and rightfully so, too.

Alright, my 'tiny mini break' is over... time to start getting into 'work mode' again.  Let's go!

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Photo credit:  All the photos in the collage featured in this post belong to me.  They may not be used for other purposes.

Video credit:  The owner of the video featured in this post is indicated in the video itself, Hybe Labels. Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

References:  MAMA website, Melon Music Chart and BTS Official Website.

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