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The Wild swings of spring

4/23/2015

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Picture
Detail from "Primavera" by Sandro Botticelli, 1485
On Monday morning, I sat on my back door step wrapped in a throw blanket sipping my hot water with lemon from a pale turquoise mug, allowing the heat of the cup to warm my hands nestled around it.  I was enjoying the sun, the singing of the birds, and the yellow-blue sky. The weekend had been warm, but the weather report was saying cold and wet were back on their way.  Fast forward to Thursday and the lovely warmth of the weekend has been blown away by cold, howling winds, sleet, and even a few light snowflakes. This is the reality of spring and is depicted in the detail above from renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's work, "Primavera."  

Botticelli himself was prone to wild swings.  He began his career focused primarily on mythological narratives producing the iconic work, "The Birth of Venus."  He also painted religious subjects, but became especially devout later in his life when he followed Girolamo Savonarola, a monk who preached that all of Florence had become too enamored with finery and debauchery. Savonarola held "bonfires of the vanities" where he called upon Florentines to bring their luxuries--including books and art--to throw on the pyre and thus purge themselves of pride and corruption. Some art historians believe Botticelli burned many of his own works, others think he just stopped painting. In the ultimate show of irony, Savonarola himself was burned at the stake on the charge of heresy for his preaching. The Papal hierarchy was not interested in giving up its nice stuff!

My point is to use Botticelli as an example of the pendulum that spring often sets us on.  As the weather deviates from lovely to lousy, we too often vacillate from optimism and freshening habits, to the doldrums and old unhealthy patterns.  Winter to spring is the most dramatic of seasonal shifts and it can prompt extreme behaviors from us as well.  We are literally moving from a dry cold season (artificially countered with lots of hot forced air indoors) to a cold wet season that messes with our physiology and psychology. Therefore, we need to try to counter this wild swing with wise habits that prepare us for the warmer, halcyon days to come (and shorts/swimsuit season).  

Often our extreme behaviors are prompted by denial as we indulge our inner brats.  For example, we know we should drink more water, but we like getting hopped up on coffee.  We know our bodies do better on whole foods, but really like that afternoon cookie/pastry/cake break.  It's been a long day, don't we deserve to unwind with a couple of glasses of wine?  Sure a walk after dinner would feel good, but the television beckons. And so on, and so on . . . We don't always want to accept that achieving better health or more happiness requires both discipline and patience.  It requires commitment to doing the things that will result in success and it usually requires WAITING for the payoff.

What can we take away from this reality?  Think about behaviors that you know are beneficial but have a tendency to stray from when fatigue, impatience or frustration strike. These may include:
  • Saving money or planning for a desired major expense
  • Drinking enough water
  • Eating enough fruits and vegetables
  • Exercising regularly at a reasonable rate
  • Getting to bed earlier
  • Getting up earlier
  • Meditating or starting the day with a spiritual practice
  • Flossing
  • Connecting with a partner on a deeper level
  • Reading for pleasure and/or edification

Think about what you are veering away from, what you avoid, your wild swings and what sets them off.  Spring is the perfect time to face these challenges just as you tuck your head down and walk hard into that strong wind.  Now is the time to strengthen your discipline muscle so that come summer you can experience your best self and most healthful habits with ease and joy.

Artfully yours in sunshine and rain,

Lisabeth
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The Balance of spring

4/16/2015

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Picture
Blue squills and narcissis
I'm starting to feel that spring truly has arrived with the leaves budding on the trees and early flowers coming into bloom.  Though I enjoy the contemplative quiet and coziness that the winter months provide (a perfect time to go inward), I'm feeling like those budding shoots--ready to come alive with fresh greenness.  Last weekend we were actually able to eat our first meal of the year outdoors--and boy did we appreciate it!

April brings us the opportunity not only to spring clean our homes but also our bodies and our mindsets.  This week I'd like to focus on the body and how you can start seeking balance through diet as you head into spring.  This is a wet time of year and so the body needs food that is light, vital, bitter and green.  You want to cleanse the body of the extra fat and protein you consumed over the winter months, so think GREEN and LEAN.  Now is the perfect time for salads and steamed greens, and light vegetable soups.  Ease up on the meat, dairy and oil.  Forego heavy carbohydrates.  Keep things fresh and light.  

While eating lighter, think about living lighter too.  As the weather warms, find more ways to get outdoors.  A simple walk will do the trick, or taking your morning hot water, coffee or tea, outside to drink on your stoop. Appreciate the smells of spring and the lengthening of the days.  While we're not yet in the halycon days of summer, but we're heading in the right direction. Appreciate the journey!  

This is also a great time to read an energizing garden memoir.  You can go for classic works like The Secret Garden, or Cecilia Thaxter's memoir on her garden in Maine, or anything by Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West, or Frederick Law Olmstead.  In fact, I just remembered that my husband bought me a huge book on the building of Central Park--now would be a great time to delve into that.  I also love Diane Ackerman's "Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden."  She combines beautiful writing with her clear love of the natural world and all that it contains.  

Some suggestions for "lightening up":
  1. Think green with your food, at least one salad a day and one helping of a cooked green.  Try a light dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of fresh garlic.
  2. Keep fruits light--not many are in season yet.  If you're a juicer, play with green juices that involve spinach or lettuce.
  3. Sprouts--buy some and eat them.  Relish the earthy uniqueness of their taste.
  4. Walk outdoors whenever you can.
  5. Pick up a garden memoir and refresh yourself with the wonderful observations of people who dedicated their lives to creating spaces of beauty.
  6. Add a cup of daily detox tea (dandelion is usually the base).
  7. Switch out some coffee or black tea with a light floral green tea (green jasmine is always nice to me).
  8. Buy a green scarf--I just received a pistachio pashmina that I'm going to wear tomorrow.
Enjoy and cultivate your emerging energy so as to bloom into a lovely state of summer!

Artfully (and gratefully) yours,

Lisabeth

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spring cleaning

4/9/2015

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“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris

Yes, spring gets me invariably to thinking about spring cleaning, but not just in terms of tackling build-up of clutter in the home.  I find myself wanting to detoxify my body, clean up my diet, reconsider my life goals, and to examine my daily habits.  Am I living in the kind of environment that I want to?  Am I feeling my best? Am I mentally sharp?  Emotionally content?  Am I spending my time on the things that matter to me?  In other words, I take the quote above, by nineteenth-century designer William Morris, beyond my home surroundings.  Am I putting things into my body that are useful, nutritious and tasty?  Am I setting aside time for relationships, spiritual development and hobbies?  Am I spending my money on things that enrich my life?  I think these are important questions and April is the perfect time to ponder them as we transition from winter into spring with increased energy and initiative as the days grow longer.  


I love the quote by William Morris, although talk about a guy with a messy personal life!  He was the "Martha Stewart" of his time--a design genius who marketed his concept of stylized nature patterns producing textiles, wallpapers, furniture and house designs.  His "Red House" in London is a National Trust property that stands as a quintessential example of Arts & Crafts style architecture.  His best selling pattern of all time was "Willow" and it still sells very well as a representation of simplicity, elegance and taste.  It's soft teal and olive greens still resonate smartly today. His Lotus Blossom pattern also remains popular and is ethereal.  How cool to have your work still selling a hundred years after its creation! He wanted to pare things down from the overly-ornate style of the Victorian era and to celebrate the sleek, elegant forms of flora and fauna.  He believed in muted natural tones and highlighting warm wood colors.  

Morris' personal life was not so simple.  His wife, Jane Morris, became a popular model for painters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  This was a group of earnest and talented, but rather self-absorbed and immature, artists who also wanted to buck Victorian formalism. They revered medieval narratives of King Arthur's court, Shakespeare's plays, ancient mythology and the stories of the Old Testament.  They sought to combine romantic treatment of subject matter with realism in terms of their technique.  They produced some beautiful works that still sell in reprint form very well today, however they were not the most stable lot.  Jane Morris became the mistress of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, a painter and self-proclaimed poet who set up house over the summers with Jane and her children while William was traveling seeking design inspiration.  I guess they all had an understanding, but I have trouble respecting Rosetti.  After his first wife died of a morphine overdose, he buried a book of his poetry (handwritten) with her in her coffin.  Deciding later on that this was "good stuff" that he wanted to publish, he had her body exhumed to retrieve the book.  I find that incredibly creepy and selfish--and trust me, he was no Longfellow.

So, some spring cleaning lessons from Morris, his quote and his life:  

  1. Life is too short for clutter.  Start purging items that are neither useful or beautiful.  Start with one a day.  It can become addictive (in a good way)! And don't ever regret what you've passed on to someone else.
  2. Life is too short for toxic relationships.  Start working some distance into them.  Let the answering machine get the phone.  Don't respond to the text or email.  Skip the "happy hour" that turns into an unhappy complaining session.  Seek out those who are useful (meaning supportive) and beautiful people (on the inside).
  3. Life is too short for your body to be filled with toxins.  Simple solution: A big, big cup of hot water with a squeezed in wedge of lemon first thing in the morning.  Just witness how clean it makes you feel.  

Spring clean, artfully
Lisabeth
p.s. Check out "Healing Traditions" if you want to learn more in-depth about practices that can clean up your inner and outer environments!  
http://www.yourartofliving.com/our-courses.html


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    Lisabeth Robinson

    I have been an educator for 20 years.  I create, I play, I guide and I grow.  I want to share that with you too!

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