Ordinary

“Give me ordinary. Give me cups of tea in the backyard and an afternoon so slow I can hear the hummingbirds. Give me time to look at the moon and midday trips to the bookshop. Give me satisfaction with Enough. Give me the same dinner rotation every week, because simple saves energy I’d rather spend elsewhere. Give me a tiny following of devoted & connected humans over a massive following of strangers. Give me cozy over fancy, sustainable over the latest new trend, slow progress over time over speedy growth. Give me satisfaction with the mundane. Give me creating mediocre art over not even trying to make art. Give me goals because they’re aligned, not because they’re markers of becoming more important. Give me time in nature and laughing with my child. Give me a sink full of dishes after a good meal. Give me dew on flowers and writing that isn’t the best but feels good to write and a messy top of the dresser because life is full. Give me ordinary. Give me the knowing of ordinary being enough.” Lisa Olivera

All About Mobility

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I loved this podcast episode— Sandy Brockman is back on the TSC Him & Her Podcast. It was all about health, body composition, mobility, corrective movement and muscle. It’s a great episode for men and women. I learned so much. Sharing here.

A Bad Cup

Me, imagining I have a decent cup of matcha.

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Here is your PSA now— Starbucks and Dunkin cannot make a matcha to save their lives. #disgusting

With each passing day, NYC unlocks a new sub-basement of low IQ.

If there are a few things I have learned along the way in the last decade—

-Steel yourself from the opinions of others and work from integrity. The majority of people don’t have any. Don’t let them mold you.

-Hold onto whatever rebellious streak you have. It’s a gift to push back against evil, stupidity and mediocrity.

-Do your own research and don’t try to prove anything to others. Let people do their own search for truth. You can lay cold hard facts in front of someone, and they can still find a way to reject them if they are determined to stick to a narrative or ego. It’s a waste of time. People are responsible for themselves. He who argues with fools becomes one.

-People don’t care about others in the way we were taught as children. Don’t be deceived by a desire of acceptance or belonging. Don’t betray yourself for a person who would sell you out in a millisecond. People who truly care and operate in kindness are rare, spirit-filled people. Their actions show it.

-Accountability matters. Hypocrisy and incompetence abound.

-Evil is unsustainable. It eats itself alive.

-Care is reciprocal in its most genuine form.

-People live and make decisions from a place of self-loathing in their default setting.

-People-pleasing is always exploited. Don’t become prey.

-If someone gives you a bad cup of anything— don’t drink it, and don’t go back. (And get your refund). If you start a bad book, don’t finish it. Life is too short to not exercise your agency and waste energy or time on something unworthy.

Agency is so key. Every day, we should reflect on what we have chosen and what we are choosing in the present moment. If we don’t like it, let’s have the courage to change it.

I have found that when things get dark, opportunity lies ahead. The key is to be bold enough to seize it.

The bad cup belongs in the trash. You deserve better.

The Emotional Clutter

“The hardest clutter to recognize is the emotional kind that looks like care. The worry that feels responsible. The constant mental scanning of other people’s moods. The “just checking in” texts that come from anxiety, not connection. We tell ourselves these are signs of empathy, but they’re often signs of overextension.” Ayushi Thakkar

Excellent Advice for Living

Image from Pinterest

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Today, I am linking to some sage advice. I have had this tab open on my phone for probably at least a year. I always come back to it.

Check out the Excellent Advice for Living here!

The one that always rings through my head is: “Don’t fear failure. Fear average.”

A Great Prayer

“Giving is a great prayer.”

Elena Brower, “Tenses: six,” Softening Time

Image from Pinterest

By: Gabriela Yareliz

My husband and I live in a pre-war apartment, which means we have a hot pipe that runs through the bathroom that now glows with heat. I walked past it this morning, and felt the warmth radiating from below the chipped paint.

Image from Pinterest

The radiator is on and the eye mask is too. Despite the flowing warmth, the wooden floor feels icy. I find November to be one of the coldest months. I have memories of one of my closest friends visiting me around Veterans Day, and that, my friends, was the coldest week of all. We were running in and out of shops and cafes on the Upper East Side (UES) for shelter from the cutting ice wind.

It’s always giving season, in my opinion, but we enter a season that is hyper focused on it. November is shopping and donating season. It’s a season of gratitude, abundance and generosity. This is a time that, for me, is filled with gift brainstorming and gathering Christmas and New Years gifts, little by little, to avoid the overwhelm and December frenzy and stealing of packages. I start hiding things and forgetting where I hid them like a squirrel. I start making my repeated visits to the post office.

Image from Pinterest

They call December sparkle season, but November is not far behind. It’s a season where the nights are darker, but the glitz and glimmer of NYC starts to shine through. Columbus Circle gets decorated, ice skating rinks fill up, UES looks like a scene from a storybook (or it did) and Upper West Side gives itself to the magic of The Nutcracker.

Image from Pinterest

One of the magical Holiday Markets (Bryant Park) is up, and the rest will be constructed this month.

This week, we had a rain deluge and a windstorm. Flooding and wind that made 52F feel like 36F blasted through NYC streets that turn into wind tunnels.

My umbrella was useless as I was literally clinging to street signs to not blow away (thank you, brutal city wind for making me feel light and dainty again). My jacket, I soon discovered, felt a little too thin for the frigid blasts, I realized as I walked down a familiar block to see if our favorite Chinese bakery had reopened from their 1+ month break. It’s time to bring out the other jackets and layers.

Image from Pinterest

I would be lying if I didn’t admit sugar plums are already floating through my head. Yesterday, I got some much needed deep cleaning and reorganizing done. A sigh of relief. I lit a cozy candle, caught up with my mom, and flipped through my new cookbooks (my new favorite pastime) as I waited for the towels to dry downstairs.

I keep checking the Love Shack Fancy page to see if that menorah I want is back. The feeling of Christmas is in the air.

Image via Love Shack Fancy

As we creep closer to Christmas, November is for long bundled up walks, candles in the darkness and no overhead lighting, warm teas and lattes to warm the spirit in the mornings and evenings, soupy lunches, butter melting on warm bread.

It’s a cozy season of comfort and scouting. Time to hit up Bleeker Street in the evenings to look into the shop windows and find the perfect gift that reminds a loved one that they are loved and known.

Despite the cold— November invites us to balance the wandering outside with the shelter and cozy we find inside. It teaches us to stay in movement (there is a lot to do, see and plan), but also to come inwards and nourish. What are your November plans?

Figuring it Out

“And you do have more agency than you think. You can try anything, make your own rules, make unconventional decisions that might initially only make sense to you. If you’ve never learned to really listen to yourself and figure out what it is you actually want out of life, you can start now.” Erifili Gounari

What do you want out of life today?