Keeping the Garden

Image via Pinterest.

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Spring arrives on March 20. I love spring. It always arrives right on time— when winter has beat us up and left us in a heaping pile like the inches of snow dropped on us.

Friday was exhausting. It was exacerbated by the anxiety that loomed over me when I realized I had missed my window to do laundry. It haunted me for 24 hours. The tension from the week came tumbling out on the mat. I can’t say I have cried often during a workout, but there is something that gets triggered when you expand the hips. It’s like something unlocks. If you have experienced it, you know. The pelvis holds so much emotion.

This past weekend, a matcha and a bad mood hit me out of nowhere like an electric shock. That night, I couldn’t fall asleep, and I stared through the blinds at the blinding grey light as the snow continued to fall. My bad mood propelled me to finish a book that had been dragging me along. Sometimes, we need to punctuate things. I had liked the book when I started it, but by page 400– I was like, this could have been an email.

My mind stayed racing for hours. (Don’t drink caffeine during your luteal phase— or if you are me, don’t drink caffeine— ever).

I am now reading a book about Eve Babitz and Joan Didion. (I like it!) There is something that always intrigues me about the 60s and 70s. The pivot from the 50s to those two decades feels like such a flip of a switch— sort of like my mood that night. Sort of like the seasons.

The next day, I waded out of my swampy habitation, and decided connection was better. Slow was ok. The flawed nature of it all (and my own flaws) shouldn’t make me sharp like the ice outside but should make me soften like water. It was time to melt.

I recently heard a wise Italian say that, at times, what we need is to say that some seed of a mood inside of us won’t take root. We acknowledge it, and we pluck it up like a bird would and throw it out of the garden. Spring reminds us of the green that starts poking out of the ground. The new. The soft. The colorful. The watered. The pruned.

The resilient.

Image via Pinterest.

Character Defined

“Your character is how you absorb what has happened to you; how you absorb reality; how you absorb the world. Who you choose to be in response to everything you did not choose.” Erwin McManus 

Close

“If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.” C.S. Lewis

Don’t Die In Another’s World

“Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s.” Anais Nin

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Some of the most glorious moments of our journeys are the ones where we buck all expectations and cultural rules imposed, and we create our own operating system.

My rule is that the only opinion that matters is God’s. Once you know you are doing something in alignment with His character, nothing else matters. Everything else be damned. There are no rules to create a beautiful life but the ten.

We often live in so many prisons of our own making. Sometimes, we sit in the prisons others create for us. At times, it’s almost like we ask for permission to exist, to move, to believe, to stand tall, to move toward dreams, to leave our harm. We live suffocating slowly.

We must own our agency. We must shed what controls and manipulates us. We must wear our faith as a shield. We must speak in truth. We must rise with courage.

Belief by belief— brick by brick, build your own world.

All Sorts of Life

“That’s the kind of story I want to write, the kind that stops being writing and starts being life.” George Saunders

By: Gabriela Yareliz

The Chinese lunar new year. First night of Ramadan. Ash Wednesday. Resurrection Sunday peeks over the horizon on the other side of fasting and journey.

My express train going local. Sigh.

It’s weirdly “warm” compared to what we have had the past few weeks. It’s rainy and damp.

I am listening to old New York stories, and reminded that so many people around us have the most incredible stories. Each person a vault of life, that if tapped, reveals sparks of magic, insight and history that offers sudden understanding.

The stories we tell— these moments of transition have a way of reminding us of our points of transformations. The moments that make our voice break. The moments that make tears fill our eyes to the brim. The moments that make us break out in uncontained laughter. The moments that make us our most undeniably honest selves.

Other’s stories have the power to shift something deep inside of us, like a train that clicks onto a different track (like my currently rerouted train).

If we dare to talk; if we dare to listen— there is so much that deserves to be told, heard and passed on.

This Week’s Favorites 2.17.26

Image via Pinterest.

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Strawberry milk was my favorite as a kid. Speaking of favorites— these are some of the things that have caught my eye these past few days.

Martha Stewart, the queen.

Megan Roup in conversation with Pia Mance (and yes, I did a The Sculpt Society workout shortly after).

On not wasting the wounds and thorns and how God is ever present.
Chinese medicine wisdom. *me with my Chinese herbs being annoying*
This theme song had wisdom.
Image of Olivia Culpo via Instagram. Love the glamour.

This palette photo reminded me of college:

Image via Pinterest.

An interesting week with a dash of nostalgia.

(And it’s only Tuesday).

Are We Pacified?

“All you need to do is look at what they are good at and get better than them.” Andy Frisella

By: Gabriela Yareliz

What if comparison makes us better?

Yesterday, I saw some minutes of the women’s Olympic skiing. It was WILD. The speed, the way they are stacked in placement, and how one thing can affect the whole picture. The camaraderie, and also, the rivalries. Some win; others lose. Some return; others have run their last course.

I was listening to Andy Frisella, and I loved his conversation on athletes. The best coaches and athletes examine other teams and players. They compare. They learn how they make passes and how they move. Comparison is used for data, analysis and improvements. Comparison is used to win.

People who want excellence, look at others aspirationally and strive. Anyone who is competitive pays attention to the people around them, Frisella says.

Frisella argues that sometimes, the voice that says comparison is bad is the one trying to make it ok to be lazy. A voice that gives permission to the lesser version of you. The voice that stifles your growth. It’s a voice that does not work in your favor. Winners do not listen to that voice.

It’s important to weigh the information around us and wonder if it calls us to be better or if it attempts to silence the voices urging us toward growth. Does it draw us to our highest self? Does it strengthen the voices that lure us into complacency? Are we seeking to pacify ourselves and our insecurities?

Compare to win.

Spring Dreams

Image via Pinterest

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Yesterday was our first day over 39F in weeks. The sun was shining, and I kept feeling like there was an important thought I had forgotten. I was racking my brain like a child shaking the last coin out of a piggy bank, all in efforts to remember the forgotten piece. While I never remembered what I forgot, I knew the world was thawing.

There is a constant drip-drip from the roofs; the snow and ice sheets on the streets are turning into streams. It was like Narnia after the winter curse is broken.

As the sun re-emerges, my mind can’t help but wander toward spring. I keep dreaming of a spring walk through Oyster Bay.

You just feel it in the air. We’ve tilted the scales of winter toward spring. It’s inevitable.

What will spring usher in?

More skirts- sheer is fun.

Image via Elle Brasil

Shoes that aren’t boots- and colorful socks!

Image via the Editorialist

Cooler matchas– with fruit flavors.

Image via Pinterest

Button down shirts- also bringing more color.

Sunglasses return- because it won’t be dark 24/7.

Image via Pinterest

Brighter blush- the more color the better.

Image via Rhode

What are you looking forward to as we soon start to descend into a new season?