Links Friday: Not So Much

Again a pretty light Friday but at least it’s actually a Friday this time!
The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow and I went to the beach twice this week, as it’s the only reasonable place to be when the weather is over 80 degrees.  And I finished Middlemarch this morning.  Very exciting.

And say to my new beluga desktop background.

• Vacation inspiration from the ever-fabulous Tracee Ellis Ross.
• There’s a Reformation store coming to Boston!
• From Crystals to Horoscopes: The Rise of Spirituality in a Skeptical World.  The intersections of wellness, spirituality, and woowoo stuff always fascinates me.
• This film looks super cute.
• Need some self-care reminders? @tinycarebot has you covered.
• On DwtS, Adam Rippon cha chas to RuPaul’s Sissy that Walk. It’s pretty good (although their connection could be better ;P )
  And Mirai’s salsa.
  No, I don’t actually watch Dancing with the Stars.
• I’m a fan of this style of girl names. What would you pick for this couple?

Which Yoga Program?

Hello all, I’m completely immersing myself in doing nothing- but somehow that ends up with me writing immense to do lists to take up this newfound free time (and to prevent myself from doing the lab report I still have over my head).

And it’s a fair amount colder here than in France- but I can’t say exactly how much colder because I’ve also switched from Celsius to Fahrenheit and I don’t know the exact conversion. It’s not stopping me from daydreaming about the real summer though.  From doing garden work to thinking about dresses and bathing suits to planning possible travels and beach reads, my brain is charging toward summertime.

One of the places I’m hoping to go is a certain yoga retreat that I’ve been a few times before, either for a program or an R&R.
But I’m not sure which program I might want to do- here are the ones I’m looking at, with a one-sentence summary.
Spoiler: They don’t have yoga with baby goats, which is a serious disappointment.

• The Power of Moving Towards: Moving towards is one component of Azul, a conscious movement practice and path of personal transformation created by Amara Pagano.
• Awaken Your Divinity Within: Paul Selig introduces techniques to heal yourself and others, develop and sustain higher levels of consciousness, and release emotional blocks that keep you from manifesting your higher nature.
• Hiking and Yoga: Explore miles of trails directly adjacent to the Kripalu campus, and enjoy group yoga classes with experienced outdoor guides and yoga faculty.
• Moving into Bliss with Yoga: Vishva-ji applies the map of the koshas to a full repertoire of yoga techniques including lifestyle tips, asana, pranayama, mantra, yoga nidra, and meditation, bringing insights from traditional wisdom into your present-day practice.
• Radiance Sutras Flow: Experience a contemporary perspective on time-honored yoga philosophy, the wisdom of The Radiance Sutras, ecstatic dance, and Kripalu vinyasa flow.
• Kripalu Outdoors: Satisfy your longing for a connection to nature as you explore hiking, kayaking, and yoga in the beauty of the Berkshires.
• Yoga Fusion:  Yoga Fusion brings together leading instructors from various traditions for a powerful weekend of collaboration and community.
• Natural Spiritual Progress: Spend a weekend with a yoga master who has devoted 50 years of his life to understanding, practicing, teaching, and refining the traditional yoga received from his teacher.
• Power Vinyasa Yoga: Celebrate Power Vinyasa Yoga and learn how to develop a healthy, lifelong practice.
• Designing a Life that Matters: Debbie Millman reveals the common denominators that often hold people back and offers unique tools to help you conquer the obstacles you have put in your own way.
• Awakening Shakti: Using closely guided meditation, mantra, visualization, and inner journeying, this powerful, experiential program opens the body’s core channels and invokes the Sacred Feminine within the body and mind.

Books Via Movies

There’s a popular bit of wisdom that holds “the book is always better than the movie”- with which I must respectfully differ.  Many landmark films come from meh reading material (The Godfather, Jaws, Rear Window, Rosemary’s Baby, etc.)
Granted, if you are eagerly awaiting a movie franchise of a book series already beloved, you’re doomed to be disappointed.  It’s hard- if not impossible- to fall in love with someone else’s vision of something when you already have your own.

Many of the books I’ve sought out on the strength of a film have been disappointing.  Frankly, some stories are better suited to print and others seem made to be made into films.

But then there have also been times that I have felt very much rewarded in seeking out a movie’s source material. These books are generally a little different than my usual reading material (well-known and older novels)- in a way that makes them particularly suited to summer.  They’re generally shorter and quicker, a bit less thoughtful, a bit more action-driven.
My favorite books found via their movies are below, and arranged by genre:

Yé-yé, It’s Summer!

Music for me movies in seasons, and incidentally every summer I find myself straying away from the top of the charts and toward music that fits my one part relaxed, one part nostalgic mood.
One genre that I return to year after year is yé-yé music (henceforth called ye-ye because I’m too lazy to deal with the accent aigu repeatedly), a genre of music, mainly French- but also from Italy, Spain, and Portugal- that was popular in the 1960s.  It’s basically the continental version of American 60s surf music (of which I’m also very fond).

So this will be mainly French (because prior to writing this I had no idea the style included other countries and I am now planning and thrilling at the prospect of the impromptu research I get to do and music I get to find!)

Clothes I Wear All the Time

I’ve been thinking of doing a post like this for a little while- essentially, clothes that I’ve worn to smithereens. It came about as part of trying to streamline my closet, giving up the things I hardly wore and didn’t need so I could get dressed more easily and focus more on the positivity of the things I had and really valued.  And the pieces I’ve worn for years and am extremely grateful for. So here’s a more spring/summer-y selection of clothes I’ve had for years and can’t imagine being without.

How is my Garden Growing?

I’ve a busy day (as I did yesterday) so just a quick rundown of the plants that are really thriving in my garden at the moment:

• honeysuckle- it’s blooming and climbing all over the porch!
• lavender- not blooming yet, but after being harshly cut back in early spring (it was getting far too craggy) it’s really taken off.
• coral bells- I wasn’t expecting these to come back this year, but they’re here and they’re blooming.
• phlox- We’ve two white phlox plants in the side yard and again, I wasn’t expecting them to return this year but they’re here and apparently pretty satisfied.
• grape vines- We need to do some cluster thinning.
• bleeding heart- Another thing that I planted last year that I didn’t have the highest hopes for, but they’ve just ended their spring blooming. Lovely to see them.
• sea roses- We have some sea roses on the street by the side of the house and they’re looking amazing and fragrant and making the bees very happy.
• anemone- Not blooming yet, but they really seem to adore something about the light or soil in the front garden.  They’re not blooming yet, but they’ve been here for years and they’re spreading, which makes me very happy.

Keeping an eye out for my guard, sea holly, etc.

Daily Practices (That I Do and Don’t Practice)

Annually, this is the time of year that I find myself making resolutions.  Despite being completely not on board with New Year’s lifestyle changes, there’s something about late spring/early summer that makes setting personal goals a lot more natural.

Looking to the future just happens a lot more organically when the weather is beautiful and the anxiety of university has dissipated.

So in the spirit of a lifestyle adjustment, I’ve been thinking about this idea of daily practices.
Specifically, practices I wish I had, practices I’m glad I do have, and practices that I would like to let go.

Wear What: Paris

This is extremely cliche.  The whole legendary chic of the Parisian woman is very cliche.  So of course I was very serious to go to the city and examine these mythical women like Elodia plant cells under a microscope.

An aside: I’ve seen a lot of love for Elodia on baby name websites. Does nothing for me (except remind me of high school biology, which was great, but not that great).

Okay.  So first to “debunk” the myth of the chic Parisienne. Kind of/almost.  My parents and I were kind of anxious about going to Paris.  One of the attendant anxieties was the fear that we wouldn’t fit in- that we would look like uncivilized/barbaric/slobbish American tourists.  We were American tourists, just without all those adjectives.  And hopefully not too touristy.  (Maybe even hopefully not so very American).

I don’t want anyone to look at me and say “I bet she switched to following Duck Dynasty when Honey Boo Boo was taken off air.”

Parisian Disappointments

Disappointments are sweeter in Paris. Most things are.

Paris Packed Perfumes

Hello hello hello (bonjour)!
I’ve been in Paris the last week so I haven’t posted at all- I haven’t been here ever before and I feel in some ways as if my heart has finally found where it belongs, so I’m completely unapologetic.

…Even if my heart felt exactly the same way in Venice last year.

I’ve made a lot of observations of the city and am hoping I can boil that down (or flesh that out) into one or two (or 10 or so) lists for your perusal.  In the meantime, I’m going to stick with something that takes little mental energy on my part, because my days have been long and my nights short.