What I’ve Clocked…
Here are some things I've been thinking about, using, or recommending this month…
Raising Healthy Children in the Land of Wealth – Across two quick podcast episodes, Dr. Jim Grubman explores how families can raise grounded, capable children in environments of abundance. Part 1 + Part 2. It can sound like an elite problem, but in reality the emotional and identity questions are universal. I agree with him that these conversations should begin much earlier than they tend to. He does a beautiful job of naming the real challenges and offering concerned parents clear, practical and genuinely helpful ways to approach these important conversations.
An Invitation to CREATE – For a ten minute creative reset, I loved this short Willow Crossley video on arranging forced bulbs. It's one of the easiest ways to bring a bit of life indoors during the winter months, whether you're in a small space without a garden or you've got acres to play with. And for anyone who thinks they don't have a green thumb, you really can't fail at this. Forced bulbs will grow no matter what, and it feels a little bit magical. It's a simple, hands-on way to create something beautiful, and the act of making it is genuinely good for your brain, focus, and mood. In short, it's a quick reset in the middle of a busy season.
Chasing Beauty: The Life Of Isabella Stewart Gardner – I picked up my copy at the Gardner Museum in Boston in September, and I am about seventy five percent through it now. I love it, and I am completely fascinated by her.
If you are not familiar, Isabella Stewart Gardner was an American woman with a deep love of Europe who simply refused to follow the expected script. She blended art, travel, design, intuition, and an unusual level of self trust to create one of the most extraordinary spaces I have ever experienced. The museum opened in 1903, and she left it to the people of Boston “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever,” with instructions to preserve it exactly as she designed it.
Rather than handing her collection to a major institution, she backed her own vision and believed it was worth protecting, in perpetuity. Very few people, especially women of her era, were making choices like that. More than a century later, more than two hundred thousand people visit the museum every year. If you are thinking about legacy, imprint, or what it means to trust your own intuition, her story is for you.
(Photo of the Gardner Museum, below…isn't that courtyard spectacular??)
The Gardner Museum, Boston