5 Stand Out Senses (5SOS_008) 〰️ HEIGHT OF SUMMER EDITION
Airbrush girl with straw by Brian Zick / Edit by me
HOLA SUMMER BUNNIES
☀️🐰☀️
BABES! We've missed each other, haven't we? I haven't done this in a while so let's hope I still remember how to round up some sweetness for your senses.
JK. This is going to be fantastic.
It's the height of summer, so I'm feeling phenomenal. Let's send a huge shoutout to THE SUN for its UV-rays gracing our skin, encouraging our bodies to naturally produce vitamin D and amp up serotonin production. I shoot for at least 45 mins -but preferably TWO HOURS- of midday exposure (keep in mind that my Vata dosha affords me greater synergy with those glimmering heat waves 〰️ and I'm, admittedly, some sort of whackadoodle lay-on-a-hot-rock-for-relaxation lizard). I always employ a hat and mineral-based sunscreen defense for the longer stints, though, because I'm a responsible lady lizard.
How about we dive into the deep end of THE MOST GLORIOUS season with some eye-candy, nose-candy (not that kind, kids!), ear-candy, tongue-candy (hmm...doesn't sound quite right, does it? 🤔 ), and sensuous summatime feels...
1. Sight
Say HI 👋🏾 to the height of travel season! These lengthy, hazy days find us with our heads in the clouds, fantasizing of foreign lands...or quite literally with our heads in the clouds, flying to those special places once reserved to dreams.
Up in the air has always been my favorite perspective. Looking down from 30,000' makes nearly every land/manmade-scape look beautiful. If what we see from ground-level is chaos and confusion, a bird's-eye view gives rise to clarity. There is order and geometry. We notice nature's patterns, rhymes, and reasons.
Benjamin Grant captures all of what our planet offers in his arrestingly honest photography project, OVERVIEW. In his mission he states that the "Overview Effect" is the sensation astronauts feel while in space, looking down on the Earth's totality. "They have the chance to appreciate our home in its entirety, to reflect on its beauty and its fragility all at once. That's the cognitive shift that we hope to inspire."
2. Sound
This is my song of the summer.
It makes me think of aimlessly riding with the windows down, fingers swimming through breezes in the long, golden hours of this long, golden season.
K, I'm going for a drive now.
"Something Here" by Day Wave
3. Scent
CB I Hate Perfume entered my radar a few years ago via some podcast or another...I really do listen to far too many. But that's an "issue" I'll address, eventually.
It's the creation of Christopher Brosius who wrote a manifesto regarding perfume's nature and purpose:
PERFUME IS A SIGNPOST TO OUR TRUE SELVES – A DIFFERENT JOURNEY FOR THE BRAVE TO TRAVEL
PERFUME IS THE WEATHER OF OUR INNER WORLD BRINGING LIFE TO A PERSONAL LANDSCAPE
PERFUME IS AN ART THAT SHOWS US WHO WE CAN BE IF WE DARE – AN INVISIBLE PORTRAIT OF WHO WE ARE
On my next trip to Brooklyn, I'm planning to finally visit his shop for a custom blend (by appointment only). The opportunity to creatively collaborate with a master of offbeat scents is tremendously alluring. Though, I have a sneaking suspicion the results will be strikingly close to AT THE BEACH 1966. Driftwood? Wet sand? Coppertone? Check! Just add a little drop of grapefruit and honeysuckle.
4. Taste
I'm really digging Bon Appetit's new-ish offshoot, healthyish.
It's so fresh, literally and figuratively. I *blankstare* when people say that, but here it's just too darn appropriate. The website is slick. The copy has sass. The stories: they beckon...like a frosty Strawberry Zevia (or brilliantly-branded 40 Ounce Rosé) balancing magically on a freakin' #HASHTAG floatie in the secluded waters of Sparrow's Lodge.
Their food philosophy is how I think we should treat eating nowadays. No dogma, no gimmicks, no gunk. Just health with spunk. Just gorgeous grub that has us doing good by our planet and feeling good today/tomorrow/in ten years/in 2100. C'mon, we're all living to 2100, amiright? SCIENCE.
Here's what I'll be happily making for the next 83 years...
Cold, herby, cucumbery, saltiness in a bigass glass (aka Sippin' Green Gazpacho)
Spicy, nutty confetti on a plate (aka Shaved Radish Salad w/ Walnuts & Mint)
🌹 Rosy Boa Cocktail🌹 I would've gone with The Dusty Rose...but then I'd be copying what Behati and #teamadam already bestowed upon their little love nugget. Tangent: If today were Wednesday, I'd #wcw Behati Prinsloo for her effervescent, wild child, free spirit...purely based on what I gather from Instagram.
*All photographs in this section c/o Bon Appetit/healthyish
5. Touch
For me, summer is the chapter in a novel when the heroine rips off the shackles of her stifled life and runs wildly towards a courageous, adventurous, giddy pursuit of freedom.
Translate that to a feeling, and it's the wind blowing through my hair. That warm rush of air curving around my neck to tousle the sun-lightened curls. This summer I'm channeling my own inner heroine by surrendering to the speed of my legs sprinting downhill, or by propelling forward on my skateboard.
