Monday Matter: Holding on, Ocean Vuong and postpartum PTSD

Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup

Every Monday, we send subscribers and gift recipients of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories we recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz. Roundups are usually written by Fiza and edited by Farah.

First things first

A little housekeeping

What’s lifting my spirits these days 🕊️

Good morning, Foreign Bodies readers! I hope that wherever you are, you were able to get some sunshine and downtime over the weekend. I’m putting today’s roundup together from the comfort of the couch in my parents’ basement while they watch a Pakistani drama in the other room. Lady’s asleep by my side and Scamper, my family dog, is, well, just scampering around the house. Here are a few things that have put a smile on my face this week:

• a dinner party with my AJC girlfriends

• A new sketch of Scamper that I commissioned from The Collected Schizophrenias author Esmé Wang finally came in the mail! You can DM her on Instagram to commission a dog portrait of your own :)

• When I got to help my brother through a particularly rough situation this week—and the fact that he called me for advice in the first place.

• the strawberry pistachio pastry from the bakery around the corner

• falling asleep without melatonin three days in a row

• the Brussels sprouts my good friend Najja made (still dreaming about them)

• starting The Sopranos, finally

• weekday lunches with lovely people

• new, kind neighbors

• sisterhood

• giving frequent visitors their own labeled bamboo toothbrushes to keep at my house

• Sade

• The way my cat wakes me up at 6:59 a.m. every morning because she wants to remind me that breakfast is promptly at 7:00 a.m. every day. She gets her first meal through an automated feeder. This is simply unnecessary, but I kind of love her for it.

• Pachinko the series is finally on Apple TV!

• my living room of succulents

A musical start to your Mondays 🎧

One song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share

This week’s pick is Portuguese singer Ana Moura, best known for performing fado, which NPR’s Anastasia Tsiolcas once described as “wistful, dark-hued, sadness-soaked music.” Moura is also renowned for her magnetic presence on stage and found fans in icons like Prince, The Rolling Stones, Gilberto Gil and more.

Resource(s) of the week

Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)

• *Mental health essay contest for older teens: The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities has a new mental health essay contest for students ages 16-18 with multiple cash prizes. Entries due April 30! More information here.