OOH LA LA! #9

In the world of my dreams we stare at the sky together and give each other flowers

I am looking at apartments again in NYC. As much as I love this city, finding a home that fits has been difficult. Where I live now is lovely in many ways, but it’s not without its downsides. Yet, now that I’m looking at other apartments and neighborhoods, I can’t help but see my current space with new eyes. It’s like having a new perspective on your partner after taking for granted that they would just be by your side.

I hate the sounds from my noisy upstairs neighbors, but I love the comfortable space I’ve made in my bedroom. I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke through the pipes, but I will miss the familiar walk home late at night.

I tell myself, you will learn a new walking route and it will become familiar, you will make a new rest-filled bedroom, you will learn to love a new home. For me, this is the power of practicing intentional pleasure. Wherever you go, there you are, and wherever I end up, I will find new delights. I will create new joy. I will call in new, more wonderful, more right-for-me passions. And it will be good. For now, I’m taking in the magnolia tree outside my front door with reignited appreciation. I’m sending loving kindness to my neighbor with the cute cats. I’m indulging in the quiet I’ve cultivated here.

A cashier at Trader Joe’s told me they think the world is ending because of all the cosmic stuff happening. I instinctively said, “The world is always ending, and it is always beginning again.” This reminded me of a poem by Rumi who wrote, “Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”

Cheers to endings and beginnings.

This week’s OOH LA LA! list includes: collective moment of staring at the sky, spam folder, free flowers.

On Monday, I was in a virtual meeting at 2:00 PM. I had read that the solar eclipse would be occurring in NYC around 3:20 PM and didn’t know if I would make it in time. At 3:10 PM when the meeting ended, I put on my shoes and went outside. Right there, I saw people standing and looking up toward the sky. Right outside my apartment! I walked over to a group and stood in silence, immediately mesmerized by the sensation of standing with strangers in meditative wonder. Within minutes, a kind woman offered to let me borrow her solar glasses to see the moon in front of the sun. Without the glasses, the sky seemed unchanged, but when I put them on, I saw the round, three-dimensional moon in front of a glowing orange sun. How miraculous to witness this! I imagined all the people along the path of the eclipse, united in this collective moment of staring at the sky, and I was overcome with hope for the world. Maybe we can be together, after all.

I just learned that my Gmail email inbox has been sorting my emails into different places within my inbox. I found several OOH LA LA email replies that had been hiding from me, including some that even made it into my spam folder. It just goes to show, sometimes the trash is full of treasure. (Also, thanks to everyone who has emailed - I think I’ve replied! And hopefully fixed this setting!)

Everyone in Union Square was carrying white bags full of tulips over the weekend and I wondered what that was about. I was in the grocery store seeing pink and yellow and red tulips around every corner. I was walking to the subway bumping into bags of flowers in my face. I overheard someone say “The tulips are free, they are giving them out.” Then someone else said the was 45 minutes long, at least. I don’t know where the tulips were being given, but I love that so many people waited in a long line for free flowers because all day, people and tulips were smiling. This is the kind of world I want to live in.

Thanks for reading!

I’d love to know about your OOH LA LA! somethings.

Reply to this email with 1-3 sentences about your current obsessions, passions, and pleasures and why you love it. It feels good!

XOXO,

LJ