Present Joys: Biscuits, Bug, Sun Spots and Honorable Harvests
Week of April 8, 2025
Meditation Mount
I was in Ojai recently for a bachelorette trip to celebrate my friend Wendy. One highlight of our trip was a visit to Meditation Mount. I’d always heard that it was a great spot to take in magic hour, but I was especially struck by the sense of calm you feel when entering the grounds. We were greeted by a friendly staff member who encouraged us to walk the grounds, join for a guided group meditation, and enjoy the sunset from the garden. We left three for three and blissed out. 🦋
Biscuits
I’ve been on a biscuit kick lately and I never tire of admiring the lamination post-bake—all the more if I pull out a batch in the afternoon when our apartment lighting delivers the drama. Highly recommend this recipe for Pickle Biscuits which have been very well-received among my friends and family.
Meeting Bug
Van, Bruce and I visited our friends Lian and Colin recently to meet the newest member of their fam: a lil red Labrador named Bug! I was a puddle of a person meeting her; puppies with their funny proportions and clumsy movements just make me melt. It was so great meeting her and seeing our friends embody their new role as pup parents with such patience and poise. Van and I left smitten with Bug and re-inspired to create more consistency with our own training with Bruce.
Alvin Ailey
Took myself out on a date to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform at Dorothy Chandler Pavillion last weekend. I’d taken a class at Ailey during a past visit to New York, but this was my first time seeing his work performed. It was a beautiful introduction to his specific style of dance which spans spiritual to Broadway. I treated myself to a third row seat so it was absolutely captivating to see each dancer’s expression and body(ody-ody-ody) in motion. Such a joyful night. 🤍
Salad Evangelist
My friend Jessica was in town last week for our friend Wendy’s wedding and Van and I hosted her at our apartment for a couple days. I don’t get to see Jessica too often as she lives in Oakland, so it was lovely to spend prolonged, aimless time together–a pastime that hasn’t been afforded to us since college. We strolled around Highland Park, stumbled across a secret stairway in Pasadena, and caught up on The White Lotus. I aim to feed, so I made sure she ate well during her stay. Soon after she had left, I received a text from Jess stating that she had bought a bunch of ingredients to make salads since the meals we shared got her “hooked on salads!” If that is my legacy, I’m a happy girl.
Hang Up Your Hang Ups
Lee and I went to see Herbie Hancock at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (thank you Joyce and Van) at the end of March. Beyond being amazed by the energy 84 y.o. Hancock brought to his performance, I most admired his playful attitude. He was bopping around the stage as if he were in his 70s, experimenting with the microphone to make funky noises, and generally bringing joy to everyone who was there to see him. Herbie Hancock turns 85 years young on April 12th! I’m grateful he helped me hang up my hang ups, if only for one night.
Gamble House
Thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Gamble House this past weekend. The docents were incredibly knowledgeable and I appreciated how well-preserved everything was. Highly recommend! Plus, Friday nights from May through August you can visit the first floor of the Gamble House for $5… and you can add $35 to that to include a wine tasting from West Altadena Wine.
Finding the Sun Spots
I promise this will be my last Whisper joy for a bit (or at least I will try and find more joys elsewhere), but the guy’s teaching me some lessons that I have to document somewhere. The latest: always do your best to find the sunny spot even if that means you have to spend some time looking for it. Not a bad way to move through life.
Honorable Harvest
I was pleasantly reminded the other day of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s explanation of the Honorable Harvest. I felt excited about the Honorable Harvest the first time I read about it in Braiding Sweetgrass and still feel very moved to live by it today.
Bumping into Friends (Around LA!)
It’s very rare, at least for me, to bump into someone I know in LA. The city is so large and sprawling that it feels like kismet when I come across someone I know without having both planned to be there. That happened to me yesterday and it felt so special. Perhaps it’s just me getting older, but I like that an unplanned encounter can be met with and impart such joy.
Currently Reading
We’ve started in on these but haven’t made it very deep…anything we should keep going with?
Human Acts by Han Kang
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Seeing for Ourselves And Even Stranger Possibilities by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Three Artists (Three Women) Modernism and the Art of Hesse, Krasner, and O'Keeffe by Anne Middleton Wagner
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
Pond by Claire Louise-Bennett
The Baby Decision by Merle Bombardieri
Babel by R.F. Kuang