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."

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 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?"

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! It has been a very busy few weeks, and I've had so much to write about but little time to do so. Currently, we're enjoying Lake Champlain with extended family, and the air is beautiful and even a bit crisp! Here are a few things that I've loved this week:

• Listening (and meditating) to the beautiful 2009 album "East of Eden" by Taken By Trees. 
• Loving this study on how the brain benefits from walking in nature. Green spaces, for the win!
• Vibing hard with this amazing podcast on mindfulness and opening to your life, featuring scientist and zen maestro Jon Kabat-Zinn. 
• And finally, a quote from Alan Watts on learning to live, truly, in the present:

"The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the “I” out of the experience. We pretend that we are amoebas, and try to protect ourselves from life by splitting in two. Sanity, wholeness, and integration lie in the realization that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate “I” or mind can be found.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening."

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! It has been a very busy post-holiday week. This weekend is one of our only weekends at home, with no concrete plans, and I am utterly thrilled. Have a great weekend!

• Listening to this sexy throwback cover by Caught a Ghost. 
• Spiralizing vegetables and making our plantpowered life that much more fun. Last night it was organic Atlas Farms zucchini noodles with a Thai red curry peanut sauce. We have this spiralizer, but I've seen versions of this smaller handheld one as well out there that seem pretty effective too!  
• Wondering if there's truth to this study on the physical stability of stable relationships.  
• And finally, some tips from Parker Palmer on finding peace with the whole of ourselves:

"How can we learn to embrace with love the whole of who we are — a task that need not and should not await our elder years? Of course there are tried-and-true aids such as meditation, journaling and therapy, all of which have been helpful to me. Here are three others that I’ve found equally helpful, sometimes even more:

1. Spend as much time as you can experiencing the natural world. Nature constantly reminds me that everything has a place, that nothing need be excluded. That “mess” on the forest floor — like the mess in my own life — has an amazing harmony and hidden wholeness to it.
2. Move toward, not away from, whatever you fear. I try to remember the advice I was given on an Outward Bound course when I froze with fear on a rock face in the middle of a one-hundred-foot rappel: “If you can’t get out of it, get into it!” If, for example, you fear diversity, get to know “the other’s” story face-to-face and watch your fear shrink as your empathy expands.
3. Reach out to the younger generation—not to advise them but to learn from them, gain energy from them, and support them on their way. That’s a life-enhancing act that Erik Erikson called “generativity,” an alternative to the “stagnation” of age that sooner or later leads to despair."

Happy (long) weekend...

Happy early weekend and happy almost birthday, America! I'm looking forward to a few days of family, friends, and floating on a boat in the middle of a big cool lake. Here are a few things that rocked this week:

• Swaying to the breezy throwback of an album finally released by Leon Bridges. 
• Taking my interest in gut bacteria to a whole new level with The Good Gut. My ten-year old science-obsessed self approves. 
• Speaking of gut bacteria, drooling over this recipe for herbed tomatoes, which seems like a  great way to maximize use of the herbs that are growing like weeds on our deck. 
• And finally, a little summer ditty from Carl Sandburg that professes my love for those long lazy summer evenings of lying in the grass, watching fireworks, and being connected to this Earth: 

"Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long-arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
                So lazy and hum-strumming"