the november love list
This month started out unseasonably warm, so we ate as many dinners outdoors as possible before the cold snap. We sat by water and watched sunsets and walked in pine trees at dusk. We noticed the last of the dazzling jewel toned leaves and marked the arrival of bare tree limbs.
After the cold snap, there was a warm-up, so we’ve been continuing to walk, in parks, the Arboretum, and McConnell Springs. There is no substitute for walking in nature. It’s the most restorative thing.
In fact, if there were a place where I could hike the woods and reach and outdoor bathtub filled with hot salty water in which to soak, that would be ideal.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve been thinking a lot about David Bowie this month.
I started listening to Bowie in the eighth grade and became obsessed. I fell in love with his music, his art. I’ve spent hours and hours of my life listening to him, looking at his image, communing with his work on an energetic level, and for some reason this month, I started thinking a lot about the work he did after he began cancer treatment, the fact that he fulfilled his lifelong dream of writing a musical, and the work he released right before he died.
I’ve been thinking about that theme of alienation that ran through his work and how I have related to that sense of alienation. I’ve been thinking about how some people perceive that as cold or emotionless, but how I feel it as deeply emotional.
I’ve been thinking about how he was always one step ahead of himself, how he shed skins and identities, how the characters he created stayed with him even as he killed and resurrected them, evolved them, and moved past them.
These characters were a part of him but were not him.
Perhaps I’ve been thinking about Bowie because I’ve been thinking about New York. And when I think about Bowie and New York, I think about art and how important it is and how it is often art that keeps us alive.
Since our visit to Woodstock, the New York parts of me have come back online, like a switchboard lighting up. I can’t wait to get back there.
The Love List
I watched some beautiful sunrises and sunsets this month.
I did some subtle rearranging in our living space and made some changes to my daily routine. - Creative Living Diaries
I started working on what will be the final painting of 2022.
We came home one evening, after a difficult day, and found a lit prayer candle on our first porch, left there by a friend. It was a magical moment.
A local high school’s marching band was in the Macy’s parade this year.
I’ve been bathing in Minera Dead Sea Salt.
I’ve been washing my face with the Urban Hydration Rosehip and Olive Cleansing Oil.
Rocky has been watching and playing with a ghost in our house, or an invisible-to-us being of some kind. Maybe Woody? But seems taller - like a person. I’m glad they’re having fun.
I downloaded Calm and I’m really loving it, especially the daily talks and meditations. I listen to my first meditation before I get out of the bed in the morning.
November Looked Like This
Read and Watched
I cannot recommend Stutz highly enough. Don’t miss it!
Ritual for Healing Ancestral Patterns and Blocks
A Freeform Jam Session Dedicated to the Path of Love
We wanted to watch some things filmed in Ulster Country, New York, and found The Undoing (final scene filmed in Kingston) and Driveways (a beautiful film about kindness.)
Fortune Feimster is so funny and her goodness just radiates from her.
I also loved Hannah Gadsby’s show Douglas. (Excellent art history lecture included.)
The latest episode of American Hysteria is a fascinating take on what causes conspiratorial thinking.
This was good and so was this. The later inspired me to watch Coffy and then Jackie Brown, which I’d never seen.
I was so sad to hear of Irene Cara’s death.
We enjoyed the Big Brunch, mostly because of our love of Dan Levy.
It’s Advent now and and we’re headed toward the end of the year.
As you know, I don’t really feel like time exists anymore. November was over in a flash.
Last night we had a brief, but loud, hail storm and this morning, I can hear the wind whipping around.
So, I do think winter is coming.
I hope the final month of 2022 brings you peace and and joy, sudden insight, clarity, and comfort.
I’ll be stepping into December with my planners and oracle cards and meditations and drawing up a map as we look toward the new year.
As always, thanks for being here.
I’ll see you next month. (Which is tomorrow.)
