Namaste

There can be a particular feeling of awkwardness when you see a colleague you feel you’ve let down or when you’ve gone quiet on something. I imagine we can all identify with that feeling. We over-egg the pudding on other matters in the hope that they won’t put us on the spot about the awkward thing, and it’s all a bit performative. I’ve noticed a couple of colleagues doing this around me recently. My visa mess was avoidable if my role had been properly planned, so now the organisation doesn’t really know what to do or say to rectify it. I believe some humility and empathy could go a long way, yet these are not forthcoming because they are probably seen as an admission of culpability. Organisations don’t readily show a ‘human’ side out of a perceived need to protect their own interests, even if stepping away from this horrendous litigation culture we inhabit would in fact help the situation.

I got back into some yoga in the evening, with the free YouTube videos by Adriene. It felt good to be stretching out and Leigh has a nice big fluffy rug in her living room that acts as a good yoga mat. I will always be bemused at a yoga teacher’s instruction to ‘soften the gaze’. I always end up squinting angrily.

An important milestone in this visa limbo was reached today in that I sent off a package of documents and info to the Mozambique High Commission in London. Now I will be awaiting their call about whether I’ll get a visa or not.

As Adriene said at the end of the yoga video, ‘there’s an invitation to whisper namaste.’

Namaste, and breathe. This strange period is slightly closer to being over.

Despite some of the King’s College view being blocked by the new Cambridge Student Services Centre, which has sprung up in recent years, it’s still a decent scene from one of the upper floors of our office.