Happy sunny Friday! This has been some week. Today is my last day of work with my current company, and I'm thrilled to be taking on a new challenge starting after Memorial Day! As Stanley Kunitz says in his famous poem "The Layers," "No doubt the next chapter / in my book of transformations / is already written. / I am not done with my changes." The next few days will be all about celebrating. I hope you have a glorious weekend!
- Listening to classic Beach Boys albums "Pet Sounds" in honor of the summer-like weather we've been having here in the Northeast. The record was released in May nearly fifty years ago.
- Adding these brilliant Chia seed packets to my daily smoothies for an extra hydrating and Omega-packed punch... all while preventing the typical scatter of tiny beads all over the countertop. Genius, really.
- Feeling mesmerized by Korean artist Kwangho Lee's exhibition entitled "Touch," which is comprised of the most lush looking cacti (an oxymoron, if I ever saw one) you've ever wanted to caress. Nature is amazing.
- And finally, a gorgeous poem on transformation from Rilke, that speaks volumes to finding purpose and peace in our ends and beginnings:
"Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel,
dares you to become the wind."