OOH LA LA! #38
birthday blessing, bathroom counter, holiday decorating, cutting things
Tomorrow is my birthday, and on this new moon night, at the start of this new year of life, I am celebrating these 36 spins around the sun and these 38 weeks of writing.
The truth is, my last 365 days have been full of big changes, and I’m glad to say I am still finding my way, still slowly remembering all that I love, still practicing this great art of noticing and naming the goodness all around.
One day I will write more about everything, but for now, at the start of my new year, my hope is that I can continue to “break the dead shell of yesterdays,” as Irish poet and philosopher John O’ Donohue has said, “to risk being disturbed and changed.”
In the same poem, he writes, “I bless the night that nourished my heart, to set the ghosts of longing free.” I cannot imagine a more perfect birthday blessing.
At the start of this new year, I hope the same for you and me.
This is my birthday wish:
May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers.
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
Cheers to this!
This week’s OOH LA LA! list includes: scissors and glue, exterior holiday decor, bathroom counter.
I met up with a friend last weekend at a craft cafe in the city. We paid for two uninterrupted hours to sit and cut out images from the cafe’s piles of old magazines and books while sipping fancy canned mocktails by candlelight, and I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect Friday evening. I love the whole experience of using scissors and glue, from the sound of snipping and ripping out bits of interesting pages, to the rubber-sticky feel of glue stuck on fingers, and the meditation of arranging everything on paper. I would like to do this more.
Some of my neighbors have exterior holiday decor for Halloween. While I have never had a personal interest in adorning my home, I am delighted whenever I see a giant oversized spider stretching across an apartment entrance, or orange sparkling tinsel with die-cut monster figures lining a fence. My current favorite is a 10-foot-tall skeleton that stretches from the sidewalk to a second-floor window where from the street, I can see ghost figures from a projector dancing across the ceiling. It is unclear to me if these neighbors are passionate about the holiday itself or just the decor, but I am grateful nonetheless that I get to delight in their enthusiasm.
A bathroom counter is a luxury I could get used to. My apartment has a small surface around the bathroom sink, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a counter, especially after experiencing a proper counter during a hotel stay. In my hotel bathroom, the sink and counter stretched the entire length of the bathroom, which allowed ample space for all my skincare, haircare, and makeup accessories to be accessible on one surface, all at once. If you have a bathroom counter, perhaps you’ve forgotten this pleasure, and I hope if I ever have such a surface in my home, I will not take it for granted. What a treat it was in the morning to have a plugged-in hair dryer on one side of the sink and still have space for a hand towel, glasses, hair gel, and a podcast playing on the phone.
From OLL readers…
Raechel: My OOH LA LA! this week includes a gorgeous orange tree I’ve seen on a few walks I can’t stop taking photos of it, cleaning the house has been slow and felt so satisfying, going to bed early in warm pjs!
Thanks for reading and for being part of this with me!
If you want, reply to this email with a few sentences about your OOH LA LA! moments or experiences and I’ll share in the next email!
XOXO,
LJ
“All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day”
-John O’Donohue
P.S. Tomorrow may be my birthday, but I like to celebrate birthday MONTH, and as such, I’m looking forward to sharing more goodness with you soon! Stay tuned :)