The Savour Stack - volume 3

10 Things that made me Pause, Ponder, and Peruse

Photo by Andreea Munteanu

Welcome to the third volume 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.

Let yourself be inspired, delighted, amused, or, at the very least, briefly entertained by the thought of them.

1. “Mirage Hour” — Every evening, during the sunset afterglow, the (self-proclaimed) “mirage hour” begins. The pyramid-roof houses across the waterway become backlit by a golden glow, casting perfect equivalents of shadow onto the water in such a way that, amidst the growing darkness of the evening and the feeling of “magic hour”, it suddenly becomes “mirage hour”. The hour where you can entertain the idea of not knowing which way is up or down. Where once definitive houses become slightly hazy while their pyramid replicas ripple before them on the water. After finishing dinner, I eagerly take a front row seat outside, imagining what it would feel like to be amidst a long trek in the desert and stumble upon a mirage such as this one. These house pyramids are a far cry from The Great Pyramids - but when the light refracts in such a way - who's to tell?

2. Summer Novels — While every season has its virtues, there really is no better season to indulge in novel reading than Summer. My deep-rooted, “ever-industrious” temperament perennially reminds that I should be reading books of a certain depth or with the purpose to “learn something”. This (often irritating) internal dialogue naturally gets in the way of me enjoying many novels (especially the juicy page-turners that you don’t have to think to hard to read). But for some reason, the volume on this inner dialogue turns down 5 notches in Summer, and I’m finally able to give myself permission to tear through some novels (aka I allow myself to have fun with reading for once! How novel…pun intended). Some novels I’ve devoured this Summer so far are Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Ever the note-taker, this was one of my favorite quotes from Prodigal Summer that I feel really highlights what it feels like at the height of a long, hot Summer:

   “She learned to tell time with her skin, as morning turned to afternoon and the mountain’s breath began to bear gently on the back of her neck. By early evening it was insistent as a lover’s sigh, sweetened by the damp woods, cooling her nape and shoulders whenever she paused her work in the kitchen to lift her sweat-damp curls off her neck.” — Barbara Kingsolver

3. Linen — Easy, breezy, beautiful. Before moving to the tropics I always thought of linen as simply part of the oceanside-chic aesthetic. But now that I live here, I understand not just the beauty of it, but the functionality. How lovely it looks draped in any which way, and how lovely it feels to let your skin breathe on a hot day. Soft yet durable. The obsession is real.

4. “Send your brain on vacation.” — Lily Sais, a favorite anxiety coach and creator I discovered on IG, shared this quote recently and it immediately stopped my scroll. I love this framing. When we're feeling anxious or worked up, our mind tends to shift to overdrive, working extra hard to try and “fix and figure out” why we are feeling off. When really, our brain is designed to return to balance on its own and there is nothing we need to do to make that happen. In fact we are better off putting our brain on vacation mode. There’s no need to feel anxious about anxiety or feel stressed about stress - just let it be, just like if we were on vacation watching the clouds roll by.

5. Pen pal letters — For me, there is hardly anything sweeter than spontaneously writing and receiving letters in the mail. This is made even better when exchanged with a stranger. You can (almost) anonymously share an intimate window into your lives and private world contained within pen, paper, and envelope. I haven’t had a pen pal in ages, and I somewhat synchronistically acquired one recently. We are only a couple of letters deep so far, but the joy is real. Receiving hand-written letters makes getting the mail all that much more exciting again. I found myself dropping whatever I was doing to eagerly tear open my first letter like a kid opening a birthday card expecting a gift inside. Except this time, the gift is in the words alone.

6. Sweet Songs Volume 1 by Allison Young — This album is just that. Full of sweet songs that warm the heart like a glowing candle. I stumbled across this album of covers randomly (but is it ever really random?) - and was instantly taken by how Allison brings them to life again. So playful, light, and free, but with so much soul. Full of songs I grew up hearing that now feel kind of like a distant memory that I want to run head first into with an open-armed embrace. Needless to say, it’s been on repeat. Especially Oo-De-Lally … oo-de-lally, golly, what a day.

7. Childhood relics, journals, and more — In the vein of childhood memories, I took a pause the other day and spontaneously rifled through some boxes in the closet filled with childhood relics, old journals scribbled with academic notes and epiphanies, cherished rolled up drawings from friends, and other (temporarily) forgotten treasures. As I was rummaging through everything, I thought to myself how there really is a “just right” amount of nostalgia that nourishes us, feeds us, and helps us grow. Too much and we stay stuck in the past. Too little and we cease to cherish where we came from and who we once were. Here’s to those moments of sweet reflection on the past that continue to buoy us years later.

8. “Ablution” — The act of washing oneself as a ceremonious or religious rite. - For some reason, this truly incomparable word did not enter my awareness until last year, and now, I (joyfully) find it everywhere. Woven into my favorite books, whispered in my ear as soon as my feet step into the sea, remembered every time I pause and cup my hands to splash water on my face during a hot day. Ablution. The more I turn this word over in my mind, the more ceremonious and holy all of my encounters with water feel. What a gift it is to be cleansed by water. To love and take care of your body in such a way that the act of washing oneself becomes a ceremony. A prayer. A moment to receive. A moment for purification.

9. Veils — The epitome of liminality. An ethereal sheath dividing one world from another. The most delicate seeming boundary that is only lifted through permission, initiation, or transition…I could go on and on about how veils have captured my attention recently. The ritual of wedding veils, the moon peaking out behind a veil of cloud, and even the re-emergence of veils in high fashion (a la Lana del Rey in McQueen or Schiaparelli’s latest couture collection). While some might argue that the veil simply symbolizes contained innocence, I’m under the belief that it’s more about contained power. Clarissa Pinkola Estés explains it well: “In feminine psychology, the veil is a symbol for women’s ability to take on whatever presence or essence they wish. There is a striking numinosity to the veiled one. She inspires such awe that all those she encounters stop in their tracks, so struck with reverence for her apparition that they must leave her alone.” Now that’s power.

10. Condensation on the outside of an iced glass on a hot day that makes you grip even harder to summer every time you take a sip. — And how before you know it, your hands will be chattering to curl around some warm beverage as an antidote for the cold.

    

    … so, what have you been savouring this month? Drop a line in the comments below and let me know.

xx

Heather