Lucky is an understatement
Lying awake in Manhattan, filled with appreciation
Today’s word of the day is “appreciation.” As in thankfulness, but also an expanded understanding of something — a situation, a reality, a circumstance — as in “I appreciate the severity of the situation.” This week, I’m filled with both kinds.
👇 In today’s email:
This week’s inspiration: Appreciation
Latest blog post: Frickin’ Freezing — Cold Weather Body Care
What I saw this weekend: Ruth Asawa at MoMA
This Week’s Inspiration: Appreciation
From the vantage point of where I am, I am filled with appreciation. Lying awake while my husband — 25 years together — sleeps beside me. I look out at an array of kente cloth, 30 of them displayed gracefully as wall hangings from floor to ceiling. This apartment contains more collections: East African headdresses by the dozen and 8’x10’ Rothko-like paintings in gilded frames, all of this lent to us for the weekend. To celebrate our son’s 18th birthday in Manhattan.
We are a tribe of nine now, as our oldest have brought girlfriends and boyfriends into the fold — delightful, quirky, graceful, and kind. We feast and feast as plate after plate arrives to incandescent smiles and seemingly insatiable appetites. I appreciate that we are together, and that unconditional love abounds — the very rarest thing of all.
As art, laughter, and food are our religion, we didn’t want to miss the Ruth Asawa show at MoMA.
She says everything is interconnected and continuous. From an energetic perspective, this makes total sense to me. Every channel in our body is connected to another channel, just as every member of my little family does the same.
Wishing you a week of perspective, appreciation, and gratitude for all the things that truly matter — and the ability to discard and shed what no longer contributes to who you are or where you’re going.
Frickin’ Freezing: Care of the Body in Arctic Temps
From season to season, our body needs different care. While the temperatures plummet this weekend, I couldn’t help but create this blog post to help keep us all cozy, healthy, and safe.
Having been to Siberia — actually, this weekend in New York was colder — it’s time to take different measures to protect ourselves. I’m talking hand warmers inside your wool socks, warming spices like ginger and cinnamon and star anise, swapping that smoothie for a bowl of slow-cooked oatmeal, and choosing chai over green tea (which is actually cooling in Chinese medicine — who knew?). Plus why you should always carry an extra pair of socks in your purse.
And please, I am begging you — put down the smoothie. Many of my clients are still drinking them, which makes me bananas (no pun intended). In Chinese medicine, cold foods require extra digestive energy just to warm them to body temperature before your body can even break them down. When your system is already working overtime to keep you warm, the last thing you need is to divert more resources to heating up a blueberry smoothie.
Speaking of working overtime — most people don’t realize how dehydrating cold weather is. Your blood vessels constrict, which actually decreases your thirst response while increasing urination. And you’re losing moisture every time you exhale into that frigid air — you can see it in the little cloud of vapor leaving your mouth. The result? You can become dehydrated without ever feeling thirsty. Keep a thermos close. Your body is working overtime to keep you warm. The least you can do is meet it halfway.
Inspired by the Ruth Asawa at MoMA
I have to say I was late to the game in my appreciation of Ruth Asawa. I only saw her work years ago when it appeared on a U.S. stamp. I was mesmerized by the intricacies of her forms, particularly the sculptural works suspended in air. While she worked in many mediums, she’s best known for her metal work — so intricately woven together that it makes you wonder how such a thing could even be created by the human eye, let alone by an artist working into her 80s.
Her work evokes human figures with voluptuous, improbable curves and orbs inside like chakras.
I love how she said everything is interconnected and constantly moving — a reminder to me that life is a nonlinear collection of Robert Frost moments diverging in one direction or another, ideally opting into brightness and kindness while shedding toxicity that never served us well in the first place.
If you’d love to learn more about the life and work of Ruth Asawa, here is a great link to the MoMA YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.
I’m cheering for you,
Dr. Catherine