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! 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 (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"

Happy weekend...

Happy Friday! It has been a wonderful, insightful week of learning and doing. I'm looking forward to a few free days and a trip to my favorite place in the world. Wishing you a breezy summer weekend too. Here are a few things that caught my eye this week:

• Having an OnBeing podcast binge.  A few recommended posts include conversations with yogi and activist Seane Corn, hilarious Jesuit priest James Martin, and chef Dan Barber.
• Loving on my new konjac sponge, which has been really keeping my summer skin clean and my pores nice and tight. 
• Being fascinated by more research into gut bacteria and its impact on mood with this NY Times article "Can the Bacteria in Your Gut Explain your Mood?" Also running to the fridge to continue my daily sauerkraut habit (I move between a local MA brand and these mixes by Wild Brine). 
• And finally, a lovely poem by Mary Oliver to take us into the weekend:

"Every Day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for—
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant—
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these—
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?"