-Love For All!

[T]he night sky in New Orleans turns a dusty shade of pink during a summer thunderstorm.  The lightening brightens everything with light and contrast and I always hold my breath for the crack of thunder.  New Orleans is extra palpable in the summer months.  She’s breathing deep and will not be ignored.

It’s been a big week.  Sun-filled.  Sweaty.  So so sweaty.  I’ve been in the kitchen cooking up recipes for the blog and the brunch book.  Tron (when he’s not laying in the bathroom sink) is trying to convince me to make him an indoor-outdoor cat.  I’m doing a lot of yoga and looking like an absolute spazzzzz.  They don’t call it a practice for nothing.

I hope your days are starting to feel warm and slow and sometimes stormy.  Here’s what this week has for us:

•  We’re human and we build societies and rules and all sorts of ridiculous things for ourselves.  We build a structure and sometimes we build it wonky and have to reevaluate what we’re doing and how we’re treating each other. These words from the Supreme Court make marriage for all.  It’s a mark in history and here we are, alive for it!

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death.

It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.

It is so ordered.”

• What is going on? Three terrorists attacks on three continents, Friday.

•  How New Orleans stopped making jailing a business and reduced its jail population by 67%.  Spoiler alert:  New Orleans still has a heck of a lot of people incarcerated.

•  What if authors were payed every time someone turned a page?  Amazon is about to find out.

•  We talk about our guts a lot lately.  There’s much going on.  Can the bacteria in your gut explain your mood?  Surprise surprise, stress is a nasty beast.

•  Turning to a ghostwriter for a personal toast.  This is pretty fantastic.

•  Extremely Important:  Why women apologize and should stop.  Taking sorry / not sorry to a different level.    

•  Meet the 63rd Black Woman With A Physics Ph.D in American History.  She used to help me with my Spanish homework in high school.  Go on and GET IT, Chanda!

•  Meet people where they need to be met.  Nowadays, that’s with a text:  How the crisis text line is saving lives.

•  The essential guide to happiness at work, with Rashida Jones.  

•  This was unexpectedly beautiful to me:  14 perfect French words and phrases we need in English

•  David Lebovitz went to visit the Le Creuset Factory in France.

•  11 things to remember when you think you’re not good enough. Helpful more often than we’d like to admit.

•  What happens when a man spends two weeks eating nothing but food made for women?  Try to give me a thumb-sized brownie and see what happens… I’ll bite you.

•  The life-saving ‘undo send’ feature is now an official part of Gmail.  Um… we’re also going to need this for text messages and ten year old emails.  Thanks.

•  10 Most Annoying Food Package Quirks.  Shrink wrapped cucumber WHY!?

•  5 things that will make your kitchen more Parisian 

•  A Sad Cat’s Diary.  Half of love is just… low.

•  Have you put together your Summer Bucket List?  May I suggest that this lovely travel watercolor kit be on your list?  It’s so great!

Go enjoy this day!  It’s just too good to waste.

xo Joy