October 2024 Favorites

By: Gabriela Yareliz

October started with a desperate scramble for relief for those who survived Hurricane Helene. I was gathering resources to share. MANNA Food Bank and Samaritan’s Purse were my favorite on-the-ground helpers. People in the affected regions still need our help.

We watched the Vice President debate and thought Vance was Jim Halpert-ing us.

We launched our four-part Observing Grief series in the MW website. That was something I have a lot of gratitude for. We had more than 40K visit the site.

The sink pipe busted, I read Gisele Bündchen’s cookbook and tested some recipes. I made a healthy banana bread. Public transport failed me more than once (almost every day— exhausting), at one point forcing me to take a ferry (a literal boat) to work.

We saw a beautiful flower display at Hudson Yards. Hurricane Milton came through. We went to a cool Goop x Cb2 event where you could make your own bouquet.

We saw the Detroit Red Wings play the NY Rangers, which was a huge bucket list item. Big thanks to my husband who got us the best seats in the house. I even met Matt Rempe. (I was wearing his shirt), and he signed the shirt on my back. Wild moments like that.

I finished a Jim Kwik course and an anti-aging biohacking course with Aggie Lal. I have been reading a pretty life-changing book by Byron Katie called Loving What Is.

We saw the Victoria’s Secret show come back. The iconic Carla Bruni walked with some angel legends. This is not a brand that thrives on relatability. It almost died that way. It finally made its way back to aspirational.

We saw a lot this month. Politics was in full swing leading up to the election, while we all waited in suspense for the possible October surprise. Not sure what the surprise was— Biden’s many gaffes, Trump working the fries at McDonalds, the fact that Puerto Rico actually has a landfill problem according to a pretty alarming report from FEMA, but no one cared to report on it (and it took a strange comedian to draw attention to it after being labeled a racist), FEMA whistleblowers coming forward given the handling of the hurricane relief in the South, the list of people involved with Sean Combs (P Diddy) coming forward to endorse Harris— I truly don’t know which was meant to surprise us more.

Election Day is almost upon us— will November hold even more surprises? I guess, we’ll see…

Quotes

“The endgame is not controlling speech. They’re already doing that. The endgame is getting us to forget we ever had anything to say.” Matt Taibbi, How to Fight Back Against the Censors

“Her heart was made of liquid sunsets.” Virginia Woolf

“Work ethic is free, so spend it.” Virgil Abloh

“You do not have feelings, you generate them.” Jim Kwik

“Heal, and the answers will come. If you want to understand why it happened, focus on healing from it first. Clarity follows healing; you won’t gain insight first and then heal-it works the other way around.” Chris D’urso

“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” G.K. Chesterton

“When we show people what it means to change, to be noble, to be courageous, to be loving, to be caring, to be kind, to be generous … it gives them permission to do the same.” Dr. Joe Dispenza

“Growth will also feel like loss remember that.” Unknown

“We have a choice every day of our lives: Accept things as they are or take responsibility for changing them.” Cory Booker

“It is easy to find truth; it is hard to face it, and harder still to follow it.” Ven Fulton J. Sheen, From his book Go To Heaven

“She’s a genius. She knows exactly what’s going on. Nobody’s been fooling her. She’s dealt with super-traumatic situations in her life.” Dakota Fanning on Paris Hilton

“Am I doing this to avoid myself or something in my life?” Edie Wadsworth on buffering

“Much more debilitating than any business failure is living in constant fear of failure. Fear is the emotion that will stifle you or incapacitate you. Mistakes reflect action; fear stagnates. It makes the chances of success even smaller.” Tash Oakley

“Oh my goodness. I promise Jesus wasn’t talking about illegal aliens raping children in Nantucket when he referenced ‘the least of these.’” Allie Beth Stuckey on Tim Walz using the Bible to defend open borders

“You don’t hire a peacekeeper to do a thug’s job.” Theo Von on politics and the election

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” CS Lewis

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” G. Michael Hopf

“The greatest achievements often involve remaining open to serendipity, seizing unplanned opportunities, or riding unexpected bursts of motivation,” Oliver Burkeman

“Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” Naval Ravikant

“New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American.” Djuna Barnes, Ladies Almanack (1928)

“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, “What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now. Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.” Source: The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

“Down South there’s three things that anyone can have: a job, a local dive, and a significant other. In New York City, being a romantic was a hopeless endeavor, and many of us had more jobs than love. Down south, the necessities of life are easy to come by.” Jaggyish (Brianna)

“Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world.” Ben Okri

Stuff

Girls on Film: Why Before Midnight is a failure

Lana Del Rey & The Reemergence of Masculinity