I woke up just a bit ago. There is music playing somewhere inside this building this morning. The sound is coming from one of the above apartments. I turn to look outside and I see that the sky is open and the sun shining. This morning is beautiful, like yesterday’s. So far, life is good—really good—on the LES.
Motti is moving + shaking in his new digs. Oh ya! Didn’t we mention we kept the little guy? Four weeks ago I turned to find him looking at me from inside his turtle tank on the floor of the loft. Something or someone spoke to me—some divine something in my head told me: DO NOT LEAVE THIS TURTLE BEHIND!
So he’s here with us, on Orchard street—downgraded to a smaller tank with some new rocks to keep things interesting. He’s active + alive—just like us. He's the one thing in our possession that couldn’t be given away quite yet...
In other news, I found this incredible book the other day while out on a lunch break at Dig Inn on 28th: The New Nomads—Gestalten books.
The book was sitting there in plain-view against a bookshelf right across from where I chose to eat my lunch in the downstairs dining area.
[ I have a theory that books are like soul-signs, sent to us by the universe to keep pushing us forward...this was one of those moments... ]
So of course, with our EcoCapsule dream alive as ever, I held my breath through the moral dilemma of acquiring another object and I bought the book online a couple days later as a present for Aviv. It arrived on Thursday and we’ve been flipping through it ever since—completely inspired by what people are creating and doing in the world. It's clear that we’re not the only ones who feel like we have to pursue minimalism and nomadism in our lives. There’s a whole community of people!
That said, what I especially wanted to share here is the preface, the writing. Shonquis Moreno takes the words right out of my mouth—explaining the true motivation behind simplifying your life and going "nomadic":
["To take advantage of serendipity, travel light," says designer Jan Chipchase. The globetrotting, problem-solving consultant is alluding to values—mobility, sustainability, well-being and (self-)discovery—that lie at the heart of a cultural shift that has been taking place over the past decade: The desire to break both into and free of urban life. We want to be urban, but not bound by the old codes of the city. We want to exploit a historically unprecedented degree of personal freedom and Chipchase himself is a case in point.
[...] there are others like Chipchase, a tribe, a diaspora, or simply the like-minded who expect to shape the world instead of the world shaping them. We are the new nomads. Even in our railroad flats, studio apartments, and English basements, we are (re)turning to the life of the hunter-gatherer. We are merchants on the Silk Road trading in ideas, herders grazing the higher slopes in midsummer. And to be mobile, we slough the burden of our stuff, our places, our habits. We want to think our way out of the proverbial box and into a yurt or sailboat instead. We are not following the seasons, or the food sources, or the exotic spices, or the straight path. We are following serendipity."]
From there, Moreno goes on to talk about "The Much More Bearable Lightness of Being" (sorry, Milan Kundera!) and how "experiences mean more but weigh less than things..."
Isn't this architecture something? We're thinking that perhaps we just might build our own one day—OR hop on the Kasita bandwagon!
Wishing everyone an inspiring Sunday. Looking forward to reporting from Arizona next week!
-P+A