hello dear stranger friends,
sorry i've been silent for a little while. I've been swallowed into the black hole energy vacuum which is new york city, and feeling nearly ready to (1) disappear into a mountain house and never leave (2) sit by the sea and eat bento boxes and make seashell art for days (3) close my eyes and wake up in another life, another dream. I fly back to berlin in 11 days.
this week:
- a diagram of personal abysses
- circle animation of work as a labor of love
- from-memory drawings of new york city
- a 30 min centering ritual I use to keep myself sane.
i'm sending you love and green things,
kening
1 | the journey of life in a diagram
lately, observing my own stormy weather, i realized that life is just this cycle — the below diagram — repeated over and over again. sometimes in the timescale of a day. sometimes over a month, year, or decades. and as long as we don't get stuck, we will grow and evolve in circles. until we die
2 | love is work is love
this thing they call love is a lot of work — pleasure and pain, effort and ease, day in, day out — all balled up into one. love begins as a seed of the feeling, then you must water the feeling. the feeling is made tangible in the world through work: of showing up, of being present, of nurturing, of giving part of oneself to something else. or someone else.
3 | new york diaries: rainy central park to harlem
a few weeks ago, on an especially moody day, I left my phone at home and went on a long walk through a rainy central park... there is something beautiful and empowering about going on a long walk without a device in your pocket — nothing to take photos with, look up directions with, receive text messages with. you feel like you're truly alone with yourself; unreachable — except by the other human beings next to you. it made life — lived through the senses — feel more real.
4 | a 30 min centering ritual
these days while traveling, I've found a renewed appreciation for morning rituals — as a daily means of nourishing and centering myself, no matter what emotional and physical place I'm in. I wanted to log and share a simple 30 min centering ritual that I practice — which never fails to make me feel better: more centered, calm, and soothed. I hope it helps you, too.
5 | write love letters to yourself
part of the personal journey of becoming my wise woman self is knowing when — and how — to write to myself. how to write deliberately and passionately for an audience of one.
thank you from all the steamed buns i have the energy to make tonight for reading my weekly digest! write me back anytime.