Ramblings

On aging.

~ emmaakoch ~ 2 Comments

Sitting at the doctor’s this morning, enjoying an excuse to spend 30minutes flipping through trashy magazines…

… and I came across this page. It struck me. Her hair, unapologetically short and turning gray.

I have been thinking about gray hair more and more recently, as my own seem to multiply every day. I’m “lucky” in a sense that mine blend in well with my light hair…but why does that make me lucky? 

Who decided that it’s better to dye? Who decided gray is the worse choice?

 I wish we could change that perception, reclaim the hours spent in a chair getting highlights, reclaim the comfort in our natural state. And stepping back further, I wish we as a society could reclaim the grace in aging. 

This topic deserves way more than a blog post – there is so much to discuss that I’m struggling as to where to start. 

For today, I’ll start with some images of women who have chosen to embrace their gray.  

Another shot of Steevie Van der Veen – the model pictured above. So raw compared to the typical images we see. Stunning.

Dr. Jane Goodall, known for her work with chimpanzees.

And of course my beautiful mom, who taught me to look for, embrace and celebrate what is real.

Natural inspiration 

~ emmaakoch ~ 1 Comment

Last weekend, we wandered to the playground after breakfast. The weather was perfect. A 10 of a day. We stopped to admire the signs of spring along the way.

At the playground, as we swung on the swings, I looked up to the sky and was stunned by the colors.

Is it chartreuse? Or lime green?

It is perfect inspiration for design – I want to incorporate this color inside and out.

Since then ive noticed it wherever I go. 

As wallpaper:

Galbraith and Paul, lotus wallpaper in fennel

As trim:


Houzz.


Wrapping:
My own, paper from Home goods.




Landscape:

Limelight hydrangea.

Napkins:

Block print napkins.


Almost exactly one year ago I lusted over some little lime green shoes for my littlest lady. It is the perfect color for a little spring refresh.

You say Tomato

~ emmaakoch ~ 1 Comment

Life ebbs and flows doesn’t it?
 
The proverbial roller coaster.
 
Question, are we supposed to enjoy the grueling climb upwards? Or is it the terriying free fall downwards that we’re meant to embrace? 

Or maybe that free fall isn’t so terrifying – maybe it’s exhilarating, energizing, exciting! Or that grueling climb – perhaps it’s actually the best part given the endless possibility, the thrill of anticipation, an achievable goal to work towards. 

See what we just did there? Same scenario, different perspectives.

 

There is a lot going on in life right now – and my default is to call it stressful. But is it? I loved this article on managing stress from Harvard Business Review, arguing that often times stress is caused not by other people or external events, but by your own reactions to them. 

“Pressure is not stress. But the former is converted to the latter when you add one ingredient: rumination, the tendency to keep rethinking past or future events, while attaching negative emotion to those thoughts.”

So how do you change your perspective? Break this stress inducing habit and stop dwelling? 

One thing this article suggests is to learn how to control your attention. Specifically- Redirect your attention to areas where you can take useful action (as opposed to obsessing over things you have no control over).

My first attempt (scribbled on a notepad during a meeting – my mind kept wandering to everything going on in life).

 I can’t control what happens with our house sale. I can control the mindset with which I approach the upcoming schedule of stuff over the next 4 months – with excitement! And I can control how much effort I put into my work – I feel less stress when I put in more effort. Sounds so simple, put in more effort!

 

Try it. It helps.
And with that…happy weekend!

Looking back and forward.

~ emmaakoch ~ 3 Comments

It is fascinating to hear how people think about and picture the passage of time. 

When I think about the year ahead it resembles  an oval race track (I cringe at the word race – for I find more and more that I’m trying to slow the passage of time – but I’ll use it for descriptive sake.)

Picture the one at your old highschool that encircles the football field.  Perhaps like mine it was made of red cracked cement with white lines and markings to signal distance travelled. 

The straight stretch along the side would be the months of January, February, and March, the cold dark winter months without any major holidays to break them up. 

On the other side you would find July and August, the hot meandering muggy summer with unbridled possibility. 

The rounded corners are the shoulder months.

 April, where seemingly overnight the endless winter suddenly turns to spring. 

June, where the rush of finalizing school work, finishing spring cleaning and planning for July 4th weekend speeds it past in a blur.

Summer steals the Labor Day holiday as its own, leaving September abridged, with just 3 short weeks to adjust to back to school, back to reality. 

November and December, twirling by in a holiday haze.


As we whip around the December curve, heading down the straight stretch of winter, I’ll embrace the cold crisp air, the darker days meant to remind us all to take more time to rest. I’ll re-focus on the things that inspire and nourish me, both figuratively and literally.

Food. I’ve printed out 10 new recipes to try in January.

Creativity. I’ve purchased a new lense for my SLR camera, and I’ll finally take that out to play.


Family. I’ll pledge to leave my phone in my purse when I arrive home, taking a 2 hour break to play, focus, decompress. Seems so simple right? It’s not.

Fresh Air. Every day. Rain or shine. Light or dark.


But then, let’s not get too caught up in the future. For as Gandhi reminds us, “the future depends on what you do today.”