Longevity Elixirs ~ Euro Glitter
Happy post-Summer Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere),
In thinking about this next newsletter, I have bounced between the practices I’m currently doing:
Morning psyllium husk in salt water
EMDR with my therapist (see Miley Cyrus’ NYT interview on EMDR)
Legs up the wall before bedtime.
But – then I thought, what did my trip gift me? What did 5 weeks of pivoting, between the UK, Spain, Austria, France, and Germany, teach me?
And I think it’s simple:
The ultimate Longevity Elixir is also the secret to happiness – it’s romanticizing the small, everyday moments of our lives.
I’ve spent much of my 20-30s overthinking the big choices. Trying to determine the specifics of my desires and manifestations in the departments of life, partnerships, family and career. All the while going through the motions of small, everyday delights that could have been made magical. Often unpresent to the details of the human experience.
Here are my favourite takeaways to add a little sparkle to the mundane:
Elixir 1 ~ Fresh cut or foraged flowers 🌸
In the house and somewhere visible. Flowers add life and they remind us of our mortality. The brevity of life. They also turn dinner at a table into a date. Whether solo or with another. They don’t have to be fancy, and in fact cut from your own garden, foraged and from a friend’s up the romance. I did an artist residency in Montmorillon, France and everyone raved about the host’s interior design style. When I studied it further, I noticed the French charm came down to a few things: fresh local flowers, unglazed pottery, minimalism, and a subtle celebration of print in every room. It’s very doable.
Elixir 2 ~ Seasonal & hyper-local produce 🌾
My favourite thing about the EU is how attuned everyone is to what’s in season. The majority of restaurants in Austria, France, and Germany presented me with a monthly feature menu, which, to my surprise, was just a variety of asparagus dishes (it was May). When I asked my Viennese friend about wild garlic, she said without hesitation, “You won’t find that anymore, that was last month.” It seemed like everywhere I went, everyone knew what was in season, regardless of whether you cook, grow, or eat out. Embedded in the food culture was the land – as it should be.
Elixir 3 ~ Food between friends, especially dumplings 🥟
I wrote about Dumpling Economy (aka Knödelwirtschaft in Nuekölln), my favourite restaurant on this trip (in Berlin) on my blog and LinkedIn. I loved this place because it was a craving, completely unadorned. Nothing fancy, nothing varnished, nothing pretending. All it served was German dumplings on wood tables, with a single candlestick in a brass holder, with cutlery in a copper cup. For dinner: dumplings. For dessert: dumplings with the seasonal fruit.
A deep desire of mine: I want to do a social dining experiment called The Dumpling Exchange, where people come and have dinner with a stranger and exchange their dumplings.
Elixir 4 ~ Sundays are for socializing *bonus* 🇦🇹
Some people when they travel in Europe, loathe that “everything” is closed on Sundays. Which isn’t actually true, it’s just that so many of us are used to goods and services capitalizing on the weekends, when so many of us have free time. What is open are restaurants because Sunday is for socializing. Sharing a meal between friends, a deck of cards between locals, and a cider on a family hike. I like the idea of enforcing gathering and rest on Sundays.
Pictured above: This is my friend Theresa who is the best Vienna host/guide going. However . . . she thinks a casual Sunday stroll is a 5hr. hike through the vineyards, forests and hills of Vienna.
If you have any upcoming trips, I'd love to hear about them. Equally if you are jazzed about a particular fruit/veg coming up for harvest where ever you are in the world, please share.
Happy now July,
Justine