Weekend

Ah, the weekend…

In Los Angeles around this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom and the sky is often a bit gray and gloomy. May Grey & June Gloom are a real thing… it always messes with my nature because despite the fact that I have lived through almost 10 Los Angeles Springs, my body is hardwired for the heat of North Carolina’s Southern sunshine to start sneaking in around this time of year.

So, it’s gray this weekend. But, we got our heat wave this past week and it was a glorious thing. It was so hot in fact that my puppy was crying when we went to the park. We are lucky to live near the ocean breeze and not out there in the valley where he and I baked in the heat during a soccer match.

This weekend we are free. The kids will play with their new AMAZING futuristic virtual reality set and I am off to La Canada to record some vocals for the second album by The Luxembourg Signal.

Sarah will be anxiously awaiting tiles that we bought for the bathroom at the new shop.

Here are some links and things to enjoy with your slow weekend internetting.

Unless your Oprah, Be Yourself is terrible advice.
Are you as tired as I am of hearing the worst advice ever… this article says forget about it… We’re tired of hearing BE YOURSELF. The new new, is be your best self monitored self and fake it till you make it. We knew it all along. I liked this part.

“When we’re looking to change our game, a too rigid self-concept becomes an anchor that keeps us from sailing forth.”

And this part…

No one wants to hear everything that’s in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.

This week in podcasts I nerded out with Krista Tippett while she interviewed two cultural and social anthropologists in a rather timely political climate about the polarization of our current democratic system, and victoriously a deep dive into the big picture affects that capitalism has on humanity. Whenever a political conversation breaks out among my peers, I am most often quiet. In my head, I’m a champion for capitalism, democracy, the constitution, and the fact that the complexities of failure that our two party politics is presenting is so heart breaking that I can’t bear to participate for lack of wanting to be another bumbling and naive contributor to dumb conversation. So, maybe that makes you disrespect me… I don’t know, that’s why I usually keep my mouth shut.  But if you DO relate to that, or if you like to challenge yourself to think differently about the anecdotes and platitudes of liberal activism… give it a listen. The two interviewees don’t actually agree with one another most of the time, so don’t worry, there is plenty of room in the conversation to ask yourself if you agree or disagree. We would all be better people if we listened to every single episode of On Being.

Sarah and I are sourcing tons of wonderful goods from all over the globe for TEOT. We’re trying to suss out the differences in the numerous wholesale companies. Some simply sell pretty wholesale items to fancy ladies in America. Some build nurturing relationships between global communities. Some provide fair wages for the labor of the artisans. Many of them sell the wares we love and want to look at in the comfort of our homes. It’s led me to do some thinking about giving back in general, more so than just on the granular product level. So, I’m digging in my heels and looking at a few charities. The standout is The Exodus Road, a non-profit fighting human slavery and sex trafficking. They seek to help through undercover work and local police raids, on a global scale. It’s immense. My mind hums of fantastic cinematic stories unfolding, but I know that it takes a TON of people to get the job done. So, we’re excited to be narrowing in on a focus for giving.

Happy weekending to you all. I hope my heavy heart isn’t too much to bear on a Saturday morning. It’s gray and gloomy and so it’s got me thinking deeper than your average pretty pillow! <3

Also, sorry for the duplicate images. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I’ll spend the rest of my coffee cup trying to figure it out!