Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! It's been a long rainy week, and I'm excited to snuggle in for the weekend. 

• Loving the beautiful and theatrical album by Natalie Prass, especially "It Is You" and  "Reprise,"  which is so classic and beautiful that it sounds like the pace of a heartbeat while skipping through the Central Park on an autumn day.  
• Enjoying a big pot of this soup that I made last night -  a delicious recipe for using up the abundant carrots you might have this time of year. 
• Going deep into the archives of the Innovation Hub podcast, Kara Miller's investigation into thought leaders and thinkers. 
• And finally, a few words from Rebecca Solnit about how happiness might not be quite what we're looking for in this life.

"I know a woman who was lovingly married for seventy years. She has had a long, meaningful life that she has lived according to her principles. But I wouldn’t call her happy; her compassion for the vulnerable and concern for the future have given her a despondent worldview. What she has had instead of happiness requires better language to describe. There are entirely different criteria for a good life that might matter more to a person — honor, meaning, depth, engagement, hope."

Weekly Words: "Theory of a Memory"

"Long, long ago, before I was a tormented artist, afflicted with longing yet
incapable of forming durable attachments, long before this, I was a glorious
ruler uniting all of a divided country—so I was told by the fortune-teller
who examined my palm. Great things, she said, are ahead of you, or perhaps
behind you; it is difficult to be sure. And yet, she added, what is the difference?
Right now you are a child holding hands with a fortune-teller. All the
rest is hypothesis and dream."

- Louise Glück

Weekly Words: "Whistling Swans"

"Do you bow your head when you pray
or do you look up into that blue space? 
Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions. 
And don’t worry about what language you use, 
God no doubt understands them all. 
Even when the swans are flying north
and making such a ruckus of noise, 
God is surely listening and understanding. 
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul. 
But isn’t the return of spring
and how it springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint? 
Yes, I know, God’s silence never breaks, 
but is that really a problem? 
There are thousands of voices, after all. 
And furthermore, don’t you imagine (I just suggest it) 
that the swans now about as much as we do
about the whole business? 
So listen to them and watch them, 
singing as they fly. 
Take from it what you can."

- Mary Oliver

Happy weekend...

It's been a weird week back here in Boston, and I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend of staying local and really enjoying that extra hour of sleep. I'm also working on getting back to sharing some posts about our time away in Peru, thoughts on self-care routines for the fall and a few of the delicious recipes that we've been cooking since returning home. In the meantime, here are a few things that are on my radar:

• Taking in the most glorious sounds with Spotify's playlist "The Most Beautiful Songs in the World." They're the perfect tunes for a quiet candlelit evening or a moment in solitude.
• Making my way through Voracious, Cara Nicoletti's awesome set of recipes inspired by life and literary stories.
• Shedding my summer skin and embracing fall thanks to SunPotion's Wildcrafted Shea Butter. It's a thick concoction, but after warming the butter between your hands and giving a good massage, it's truly nourishing and has helped me steer clear of any fall itchies. 
• And finally, two parts of wonderful poems on grief from Mary Oliver that, when juxtaposed, have been greatly on my mind this week:

“Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this, too, was a gift.”

— ("The Uses of Sorrow")

“And I say to my body: grow thinner still.
And I say to my fingers, type me a pretty song.
And I say to my heart: rave on.”

— ("A Pretty Song")

Happy (long) weekend...

Happy Labor Day weekend! We're headed back up to Maine this weekend, and the forecast looks spectacular. Wishing you a wonderful long weekend of sun and summer. Here are a few things that kept me moving during an exciting and active week:

• Grooving to the classic 1976 jam "Free" by Deniece Williams and feeling instantly lit from inside. Good vibes ahead, friends.
• Enjoying one man's account of his sugar detox in Fast Company's article "How Giving Up Refined Sugar Changed My Brain," and continuing to push myself to consume all whole foods all the time.
• Trying Bon Appetit's take on Brooks Headley's burger-of-the-moment recipe. We're big on homemade vegetable patties and meatballs in this house, so I'm thrilled to add another to the repertoire.  
• Purchasing a beautifully illustrated children's book on microbes. Because I'm still obsessed. 
• And finally, a line from A.A. Milne on the gentle observation of a summer day. I hope you have a chance to meditate on the same this weekend:

"Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have his turn"

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday, friends! I'm looking forward to crossing about ten things off of our wedding planning checklist this weekend, and downshifting after a quiet, yet busy week.  More on that next week. Here are a few things I've been loving this week:

• Grooving to Mac Demarco's new album, "Another One," which plays like a hazy lazy summer day.
• Paring down my beauty routine to the basics these days. The other night we hosted a dinner party, and I pulled my hair back, mixed this fragrant facial oil, this delicious balm, and a bold lipstick and felt utterly radiant. Talk about a summer glow.
• Beginning to pack for our  honeymoon and still loving this Italian honeymoon travelogue in the NYTimes. There's something that it captures about that whimsical still-drunk-on-love in the early days of marriage feeling that I love reading about. 
• And finally, a quick few lines from Mary Oliver (as always) to take us out for Friday:

"As long as you're dancing, you can
Break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
Extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules."

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend of doing just about nothing (something that seems so rare and precious these days!). Below are a few things I'm loving this week. Wishing you a lovely August weekend!

• Really feeling the new side project from The National's Matt Berninger, El Vy, and their upbeat tune "Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, with Crescendo) (Lyric Video)."
• Laughing over the sometimes-so-scary-because-its-true feeling I get when reading The New Yorker piece "Things That Will Happen If I Don’t Take My Phone Out Right Now."
• Slowly still making my way through the fascinating book The Good Gut, and filling my body with all probiotic goodness as I work through an antibiotic. This probiotic seems to be working well, but I've also heard good things about this one. Also loving the smoky kale sauerkraut from wildbrine and the idea behind Water Kefir, which I just might have to try.
• And finally, a little quote that reminds us about the importance of being forward-looking and forward-wanting:

“Hope is not a prediction of the future, it’s a declaration of what’s possible.”

— Yogi Bhajan

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! It has been one hell of a hot summer week, and it's capped off this evening with a spectacular rare Blue Moon. Full moons are a great time to remember that life is full of cycles - in our relationships, jobs, and chapters - and having an awareness of the ebbs and flows that naturally occur can help you honor and be present to the shifting phases you experience.  I hope you stay cool and have a great weekend. Here are a few things I've been loving this week:

• Grooving to the sweet jam "What You Don't Do" from Lianne La Havas. 
• Lightening up my summer moisturizing routine because oil + sweat = grease. A few favorites include: Weleda's Wild Rose Milk, John Masters Organic Vanilla & Blood Orange Body Milk, and Farmaesthetic's Nourishing Lavender Milk. 
• Loving the appearance of stone fruit in the farmer's market. Last summer, my favorite thing to do was make grilled stone fruit open face sandwiches. Divine. 
• And finally, St. Augustine once said "You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones." Here's a poem from Mary Oliver that brings personal perspective to the notion that we should be patient in our journey to becoming who we truly want to be:

"Things take the time they take. Don't worry.

How many roads did St.Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?"