The Savour Stack
10 Things that Made me Pause, Ponder, and Peruse
Introducing…the very first installation of The Savour Stack.
A thoughtful collection of 10 “things” that made me pause, ponder, and peruse. Whether for one delicious moment or as a current ongoing wonderment. Things, thoughts, books, ideas, tastes, observations, music, etc… that prompted me to slow my roll so I could lovingly savour them.
Roll them around in my mind a moment longer.
Feel them in my body.
Process them a layer deeper.
Through sharing this Savour Stack (the first of many), my hope is that you find some inklings of inspiration in the collection too. That at least one, or several, prompt you to pause your day, or simply your scrolling, and wonder. To strike inspiration to pick up a new book, take a chance on a new song, wonder about a new “thing” you might encounter on your path…and perhaps even start taking note of things that would belong in your own version of a Savour Stack. Which is really, anything worth savouring (and yes, I do prefer to use the UK version of the word “savour”, vs. the U.S. “savor”, simply because there is an extra vowel in there that helps me draw out the feeling of really savouring something…)
So indulge me for a moment, and join me in perusing this special first collection of The Savour Stack.
Magnolia Blooms! — Magnolia bloom season is in full swing here in Southern Florida and, without fail, every time my walking path crosses by a Magnolia tree, I must dig my face in a bloom, marvel at their buttercup saucer petals, and relish in their ostentatious beauty. A dear friend of mine shared with me recently that traditionally women would pluck + tuck the petals into their shirts or bras to promote breast health and act as a natural perfume! How brilliant. I’ve been daydreaming about giving it a try myself (perhaps when the neighbors are not looking I’ll sneak a petal or 2…)
“Rollicking” — “boisterously carefree, joyful, or high-spirited” (according to Merriam-Webster). This word captured my full attention by surprise! I was indulging in a movie night the other week (watching Poor Things, which I thought to be truly brilliant and bizarre), and encountered a scene where Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) and Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) are sitting at the bar of a restaurant indulging in oysters (Bella’s first ever experience of them). Duncan guides her through the process (“shuck, chuck, and bubble”) - following the slurp of oyster by a swish of champagne and the exclamation: rollicking! Bella follows suit, rollicking et al. While the film and scene are certainly a delight for the senses (colors, ruffles, sounds, etc.) - it was something about the word “rollicking” that captured me most of all. I found myself turning it over absentmindedly in the days following, and even exclaiming it myself when the mood struck! It really does feel carefree and joyful to exclaim, but there’s also a bit of wildness to it that I’m drawn to…
Halloween Pennant Dragonflies — I have made some new friends recently. Bug friends. I certainly have many flower friends, but not many bug friends, so this newly blossoming bug friendship is delighting me in many ways. Several weeks ago, all of a sudden, the Halloween Pennant Dragonflies arrived for their *season* in the spotlight. For the first week or so, there were SO many that you would quite literally be bumping into them while trying to go for a walk. I was immediately taken by them, not frightened, but intrigued. Their “Halloween”-esque striped color pattern gives them their name and there is something so fascinating about combining 2 things that would otherwise never be associated: Halloween and Summer (the dragonfly being a quintessential bug of the Summer - or rather, the warmer months of the year as Summer is not quite upon us yet). They continue to herald my path when I go for evening walks and I love watching them dance amongst the tall grasses as the sun sets. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to saying my daily “hellos” to them and their presence always delights me, reminding me to pause for a moment and just be.
Tabula Rasa — The blank slate…the mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions, senses, and the outside world… This is one of those concepts + ideas that keeps returning to me time and again. This last week has been one of those such times as the words “Tabula Rasa” have appeared to me at least twice. Enough to make me pause and wonder…what virtue do I have to gain from this? What part of me needs to approach my life with a blank slate? And what healing can occur from doing such a thing?
Prizewinning by Julianna Barwick — This track has been transformative for me lately. Every time it plays, I savour every last drop of it. To be honest, I am pretty much entranced by everything that Julianna Barwick creates (and it is on my life list to see her perform live one day…). But for some reason, I missed discovering this track until only recently. When it came up on radio, I instantly stopped what I was doing, turned up the volume, and listened. But not just auditorily: with my whole body. With all my senses. With my heart. There is some sort of magic there when you discover a track that does this for you.
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés — I’m sure many women reading this Savour Stack have already encountered this book. I have deliberately and intentionally been “re-encountering” it this past month, as I am slowly re-reading it from start to finish. For anyone who has read it before, you know how special it is. How it somehow finds a way to meet you where you’re at, while also calling out your own stagnant patterns and presenting a through line on how to move forward. I’ve admittedly only ever jumped around and read individual chapters at a time, but I am realizing now that there is a really beautiful and intentional weaving between them when read from beginning to end. Which sounds obvious enough, but sometimes it takes you over a decade of owning a book, moving it from home to home, and even toting it along on international travels, in order to realize such a thing.
The Isolation Journals Substack weekly chorus of collective gratitude — One of my favorite Substacks, The Isolation Journals by Suleika Jaouad, offers a weekly thread loosely referred to as the “chorus of collective gratitude” where everyone is invited to share a joy they experienced, big or small, over the past week. Every Friday, the thread is flooded with different streams of joy and gratitude offered up by humans all over the world. I look forward to flipping through everyone’s shares and somehow, even on weeks when I’ve been feeling extremely low or un-inspired, I am able to dig up something of personal joy. Oftentimes, on those low days, it is through pausing and reading other’s joys first that draws forth a moment of joy from my own life over the past week. I’m sure anyone who has contributed to this thread can attest to how special it is. And how we can experience joy tangentially from the joys shared by others.
“Everything is life. Birth and death are only transitions between life.” — I had the beautiful opportunity of reconnecting with one my friends and mentors this past week, whom I had fallen out of contact with for many months now. At some point during the length of our conversation, he shared these words: “Everything is life. Birth and death are only transitions between life.” Upon hearing them, some impulse in me wanted to immediately dissent and disagree with them, but my mind drew a complete blank. The words arrested me in a way where I could say nothing but, kindly, “please explain yourself.” It’s a very simple reasoning that I have not contemplated in quite some time and really enjoyed re-exploring in a new way. Low and behold, shortly after this conversation, I began to read the “Skeleton Woman” story in Women Who Run With The Wolves, which directly comments on the Life/Death/Life cycle that we move through time and again, in love, and in many aspects of our lives. There’s something here for me, and I’m paying attention…
Sun-cast shadows — I’ve been intentionally trying to slow my walking tempo lately. My tendency has always been to carry myself at a fast clip, and since recently moving from the city to more nature-centric, quaint neighborhood-life, I’ve been wanting to slow my roll even more. Through the process of slowing down my walks, I’ve begun to notice shadows more. Living in Florida, “the sunshine state”, the sun casts so many brilliant and complex shadows. In combination with the windy season of Spring here, I’ve noticed how the shadows dance across the pavement, conducted by the wind. I’ve begun to notice my own shadow more too. How our shadows layer and silently intertwine. The simple beauty of it all.
Pearls. Period. — Apparently I’ve lived by the sea just long enough to now, FINALLY, understand the obsession with pearls. I have never been a pearl person in the past. The tightly bound string necklaces of them feeling stuffy and outdated since I first wore one for a youth choir performance many years ago. But Pearls do not belong solely for the “Southern Belle” archetype. Oh no. They are an ancient pure form of a beauty, born fresh from the wild, churning ocean. The more time I spend at the ocean here, the more I have been daydreaming of pearls. Their raw simplicity and purity is enchanting… And how this beautiful pure “thing” is essentially formed by an oyster as a way of neutralizing a threat (be it some form of invader or irritating foreign material that has wormed its way in). Unable to dispel the invader, the oyster covers it with layer upon layer of aragonite (nacre), until a pearl is formed. What a powerful way to transform adversity into beauty.
Thank you for enjoying the very first installation of The Savour Stack with me! Again, I hope this list inspired you in some way, and, if you’ve been savouring anything recently, I’d love it if you shared in the comments here.
xx
Heather
This is such a lovely idea for a newsletter, would love to see more editions of this. Have been wanting to do a similar kind of alternative monthly review myself