Expect miracles.
“PHYSICAL CLUTTER IS DELAYED DECISION MAKING.
ENERGETIC CLUTTER IS DELAYED BOUNDARY SETTING.
MENTAL CLUTTER IS DELAYED PRIORITIZATION.
DIGITAL CLUTTER IS DELAYED DISCERNMENT.” Kate Van Horn
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I think there is a lot of truth to this. One of my coaching programs focuses on the idea of abundance for this month. I think that one of the keys is that to receive, we must clear what is no longer needed. We must stop delaying and take action.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Another Monday underground. I am reflecting on the beautiful lunch I have in my bag of vegetables and salmon made by my husband. Grateful. I listen to a podcast about burnt out women whose husbands do nothing and then, they wonder why their wives are raging women— I thank my lucky stars I have a husband who is generous, creative, caring, and he gets me treats. Heart of gold, I tell you. I have a chef quality meal on this N train. (The podcast is also about not living out of survival, which is a really good conversation).
We aren’t always surrounded by safe people, though. This reminds me of an anecdote I read in Kelly Oxford’s Substack about Nina Simone. Apparently, she played at a restaurant in Europe, and they then walked back on the contract and didn’t want to pay her. She calmly explained the contract and pulled out a gun. Long story short— they paid her. The world sometimes complains about women, but it has the women it creates. I see this in the work sphere a lot. They don’t want an assertive woman, but they treat women poorly (often, it’s other women treating others poorly, too). Sometimes, we’ll be safe and show up soft. In other scenarios with unsafe people, we need to show up with the spirit of Nina Simone.
There is a girl whose hair is curly and long, and she looks like something out of a medieval fairy book. She has these metal bird plates stitched on her purse and also stitched into her shoes. She is obsessed. Next to her is a less whimsical woman in a gray pinstripe suit, white blouse and a fiery red bag. She balances a small bodega cup of coffee in her one free hand. She has big blue eyes and short blonde hair. Reminds me of Julianne Hough. I wish them both a spirit of preparation to match the challenges ahead of their respective days.
The sun is golden as we hit the bridge. There are delays, but I don’t care. It’s a day filled with meetings. Sometimes, you just have to say, I’ll get there when I get there.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
August.
A time of transition. The true end and beginning of the year.
This time always makes me think of wooden pencils, corduroy, and lined paper with the little holes.
I saw somewhere that this autumn is expected to be cooler than most in NYC.
August, while still officially summer, blurs into the beginning of fall for me. Autumn 🍂 was always ushered in by the new school year.
It makes me want to watch nostalgic shows and movies. You’ve Got Mail is forever a classic.
I get excited that the nonstop flow of summer starts slowing down like a wheel that is coming to a stop. Soon, we are invited into slow. We are invited into reflection and rest.
There is still a lot of heat left to be endured. But we get little sneak peeks of days at 60 in the middle of the 103 days. We are given hope that the roast is coming to a close. The time for jackets and closed shoes that aren’t boots approaches. We delight.
I noticed this week that while I pass by Central Park almost every day, I haven’t once taken a walk in there this summer. I always rush past it like a lunatic. I have decided to take some walks there as the seasons transition. How is it that in our rush and overwhelm, we miss out on the gifts right in front of us?
The seasons transition that looms ahead means a couple of things— deep cleaning is coming, it’s time to rethink some storage, and also, it’s time for some fresh little homeware pieces. Look at these beautiful taper holders from Anthropologie…
These are the things the fill my little daydreams. That and pictures that look like a Roan Iris ad.
Mornings will be filled with hot teas, and we’ll stop being restless in steaming train cars. Mornings will grow dark. The days grow shorter to offer us a pause.
But for now, we remain in the last of summer. We prepare for the transition. Autumn will arrive soon enough. I beg it to.
“Healing doesn’t mean nothing bothers you. It means you stop bleeding on people who didn’t cut you.” Anonymous
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Below, I am sharing a gem of a podcast. A revisiting of key values. This podcast is perfect for parents, your kids, for anyone who will listen.
The podcast version (audio only) is here.
Sometimes, as I observe the young people and adults (including myself), I am reminded that we become like what we observe. “By beholding we become changed.”
It’s never a mystery as to why we become what we become. It is a simple equation. What are we constantly watching, listening to, reading. There lies the answer.
It’s an encouraging thing as well because if we want to embody the values discussed in this excellent podcast— the answer is simple, surround your senses with it. Leave no room for corruption. Behold it. Become changed.
This quote made me smile.
You know what I have been craving? Sort of stepping away from a lot of the noise of programs and courses and just doing handstands against the wall. I just want a 40-minute Pilates session and a candle lit. I am also craving autumn. Or maybe, I have depleted my electrolytes. I am done with summer. It’s exhausting.
NYC is trying to drown us again.
People have some weird t-shirts on underground. One man has a shirt that says “motherhood is female enslavement.” (I wanted a photo, but I couldn’t sneak one).
Another shirt from the commute:
Back to the drowning— Times Square is starting to leak, and there is water pouring onto the floor by one of the exits.
A man in one of those underground bodega stations with snacks is sitting in front of a fan, leaning back, blue shirt unbuttoned with his fuzzy white chest hair blowing. His eyes are closed. None of the people trying to pay can get his attention. The absurdity in a city where most think they are entitled to steal.
The MTA is a joke. Even the NY Post had a post about it. Should we write a letter to the Mayor? (And they keep raising prices).
Chaos is the rule, and calm the exception.
You know who is calm? This little dog wedged into his subway seat.
A man with one of the largest instruments I have ever seen just boarded.
Off we go.
“An educated mind cannot be enslaved.” Candace Owens
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It’s one hundred and a gazillion degrees out. My train has AC, which is nice because my other trains this week felt like they were blowing hot air on us. I quite literally melted into my seat yesterday. This was after my employer shut off our AC during the day. It has been a sweaty July.
The world is chaotic. A conflict that should have ended years ago in the Middle East still rages on, barreling forward into an exacerbated humanitarian crisis. A tsunami in Russia, and the west coast and Hawaii under tsunami alert. A shooting on Park Avenue. Things feel heightened, and maybe, the heat makes it worse. Heat always makes things exasperating.
As we make delayed stops on this train, those with seats close their eyes and feign sleep. A woman dressed in white and wearing Coco Chanel Mademoiselle (I can sniff that out anywhere) yells into her Zoom call as we lose signal in the tunnel. Her sandal straps are undone, and it’s clear the back of her heels are bleeding. Another woman dressed in denim from head to toe parts the train crowd by yelling, “Excuse me, guys!” A lesson in assertiveness.
As the commute is one where I am precariously smashed between people with not much to hold onto, I decided to listen to a podcast. We roll along.
I can’t read my Kindle, but I am currently finishing a book on Ayurveda, and it’s excellent. If I snag a seat, I am going back to that.
*pause as we violently swing from side to side and almost collapse like dominoes*
We all have stern faces directed at the savage driver of this train. The driver can’t see us, though. The woman with bleeding heels looks angry. None of us wanted to be swinging from polls this early (or at all, but especially not this early).
As the world continues to rock us all, some more than others, I am reminded of gratitude for whatever peace we have, for the AC when we stumble upon it, for the freedom to access information and grow our minds. May we pray for one another and before we leave our front door’s door frame. You never know what awaits. Stay free.
Thinking about this.
“How you were treated as a child is how you treat yourself as an adult.” Ida Santana
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I have been thinking a lot about this. It is a fact that can help you read the room, and it can also help you read the person staring back at you in the mirror.
Taking this one step forward, I also think that how we were treated as children impacts how we allow others to treat us. It’s an interesting chain reaction; one that stresses the importance of parenting and what you teach your child to accept.
Thank God that in life no one is locked into the past. In every moment, you can start something new. You can be reborn by pure sheer unilateral determination. It depends on no one. That is power.
As an adult, you can readjust the compass and figure out a new pattern and standards. One small adjustment on a compass can mark the difference between a path that leads somewhere and lost.
“After a lifetime of blaming others, it is exceedingly difficult for us to finally acknowledge that the only person who has consistently been in all the scenes of that long-running soap opera we call our life is us, and, as a necessary corollary, that we bear some large responsibility for how the drama is turning out.” James Hollis
GABRIELA YARELIZ 