Weekly Words: "And Now it's October"

"the golden hour of the clock of the year. Everything that can run
to fruit has already done so: round apples, oval plums, bottom-heavy
pears, black walnuts and hickory nuts annealed in their shells,
the woodchuck with his overcoat of fat. Flowers that were once bright
as a box of crayons are now seed heads and thistle down. All the feathery
grasses shine in the slanted light. It’s time to bring in the lawn chairs
and wind chimes, time to draw the drapes against the wind, time to hunker
down. Summer’s fruits are preserved in syrup, but nothing can stopper time.
No way to seal it in wax or amber; it slides though our hands like a rope
of silk. At night, the moon’s restless searchlight sweeps across the sky."

- Barbara Crooker

Weekly Words: "Collaborators in love"

"Love is a many-splendored thing. This classic saying is apt, not only because love can emerge from the shoots of any other positive emotion you experience, be it amusement, serenity, or gratitude, but also because of your many viable collaborators in love, ranging from our sister to your soul mate, your newborn to your neighbor, even someone you’ve never met before...

At the level of positivity resonance, micro-moments of love are virtually identical regardless of whether they bloom between you and a stranger or you and a soul mate; between you and an infant or you and your lifelong best friend. The clearest difference between the love you feel with intimates and the love you feel with anyone with whom you share a connection is its sheer frequency. Spending more total moments together increases your chances to feast on micro-moments of positivity resonance. These micro-moments change you."

- Barbara Fredrickson

Happy weekend...

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."

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday, and happy May! Apologies for the radio silence, but I think I've just wrapped up one of the most busy weeks in quite a long time. I feel a shift towards newness and light, and I'm excited for what's to come. I'm looking forward to settling into this new space (literally, and physically) and enjoying some warm weather. Here are a few things that kept me grounded this week:

• Revisiting Paul Simon's "Concert in the Park" this time of year feels so fresh and right, and has me yearning for my years of concerts on the Great Lawn, at Rumsey Playfield and along The Mall, as the sun set in New York City's beautiful refuge.
• Bringing all good vibes to our new apartment by burning some Palo Santo incense sticks.
• Loving this travelogue of a drive up the California coastline, and jonesing to get back to that windy and unplugged open water highway soon.
• And finally, a few gorgeous lines by Katrina Kenison that speaks volumes to the type of things I've been meditating on over the course of a few tough months. I highly recommend checking out the rest of the piece, and sitting with it during times of difficulty or unrest:

"When the going gets tough may I resist my first impulse to wade in, fix, explain, resolve, and restore. May I sit down instead.

When the going gets tough may I be quiet. May I steep for a while in stillness.

When the going gets tough may I have faith that things are unfolding as they are meant to. May I remember that my life is what it is, not what I ask for. May I find the strength to bear it, the grace to accept it, the faith to embrace it."

Weekly Words: "Time is Land for Tilling"

"One of the most important characteristics distinguishing man from all other forms of nature is his knowledge of transitoriness, of beginning and end, and therefore of the gift of time.

In man, transitory life attains its peak of animation, of soul power, so to speak. This does not mean man alone would have a soul. Soul quality pervades all beings. But man’s soul is most awake in his knowledge of the inter-changeability of the terms “existence” and “transitoriness.”

To man, time is given like a piece of land, as it were, entrusted to him for faithful tilling; a space in which to strive incessantly, achieve self-realization, move onward and upward. Yes, with the aid of time, man becomes capable of wresting the immortal from the mortal."

- Thomas Mann