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Fitness as Spiritual Quest
Many of the most valuable life lessons I have learned, I’ve learned from fitness. Whether I’m just working out for fun or sticking to a more arduous training schedule, I love every aspect of the process of bettering myself through physical activity. But, it’s not just a sense of self-improvement, or accomplishment, that drives me.…
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On the Art of Entertaining
I think of myself as a maker of experiences. The most satisfying of all creative enterprises for me, acts of writing and design included, are those tailored toward giving. Those that represent a fecundity of mind and spirit and that are crafted for the express purpose of giving others a unique and memorable experience. You…
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Finding the Challenge
I cherish those moments in which I have the final say over how I occupy my time. (Which of us, honestly, doesn’t?) I have been that way for as long as I can remember, and the biggest reason I have for wanting to control my time has to do with boredom—and my attempts to stave…
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Darling, Forget What You’re Wearing. On Elegance.
In On the Art of Femininity, I talk at length about my vision of femininity and what it means to me, as a woman, to apply the essence of the feminine in everyday life. As that post is, at present, overwhelmingly the most liked and viewed post on this (still very new) blog, I thought it would…
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Simplicity as Art and Spiritual Practice
It is often said that creativity manifests from chaos. I’d imagine that most creative individuals wouldn’t disagree. That chaos, whether it involves a flurry of contradictory emotions, the unrestrained proliferation of ideas, or that bizarre clashing of insight—a knowledge that far exceeds one’s years—with the playfulness of a small child, requires balance. I’ve written previously…
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What Cooking Taught Me about Relationships
I did not learn to cook until I was in my early twenties. Although I grew up in an Italian family that encouraged me, from an early age, to develop a proficiency in the culinary arts (or at the very least learn how to roll a proper meatball to accompany my grandmother’s marinara sauce), I…
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When You Have Too Much Life…
I don’t know that I believe there is such a thing as having too much life within you. I tend to think that some of us are simply more adept than others at using our energies and our intelligence harmoniously. When you are creative, or when you are a person of many interests who feels…
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What Triathlon Taught Me about Creativity, Learning, & Achievement
With regard to athletics, swimming is my first love, although I never wanted to just be a swimmer. It was an affinity for cycling, which developed over the course of the last several years, that made me consider fusing my passion for swimming with other activities. That would create a whole separate challenge and a brand new way to test…
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On the Art of Femininity
I believe there is no more influential factor in forging a creative life, for women, than harnessing the power of femininity. In fact, it rankles me whenever I hear femininity dismissed as “absence” or “ornament” (especially when women do it) because I think it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how to utilize the power of our feminine traits. If we look…
The Used Life 