scorpio season + italy + birthday ritual celebrations + brazilian-italian restaurant + shoes on the danube bank + learnings + food writing club + looking for the perfect chocolate bar
“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” - Andy Warhol
“The laws of life are stronger than the rule of man.” - Carl Lutz
This last quote was highlighted in the Shoes on the Danube Bank photography exhibition, on my recent trip to Budapest. It’s always astonishing and emotional to visit the countries most affected by the war and compare how we take our modern democracy and our personal freedoms for granted.
I spent a lovely weekend in Hungary’s capital to also visit a dear friend and eat the street food lángos that seems like a pizza fritta and woke up literally near the Parliament. Then I headed to my beloved Vienna by train, a warm Austrian welcome after an always comfortable (and uncomfortable) visit to Eastern Europe. Budapest is fascinating, half Paris, half Istambul, but it is also raw, brutal and different.
Vienna provokes many feelings in me: wondering, happiness, excitement and love. I love Vienna. It was sunny, shining, beautiful and autumnal at its best. I stayed in Spittelberg, the Prenzlauer Berg of the city, and had many cakes in my favourite kaffeehaus Demel. As Glennon Doyle said, “this life is mine alone, so I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been”. So again, an indulgence in beauty, friendship and food. After another trip to Vienna, I realised we all need a place to come back to that feels like a big and good hug.
Now that I’m back in London, and just for a few days, I’m starting to celebrate my birthday season. November is indeed my month. My celebrations are a bit atypical though. I don’t think we should celebrate our solar return (in astrology, it’s how a birthday is interpreted - a new solar year, as the sun is back to where he was when you were born, and will again complete another 12-months-cycle) just for one day. My approach to celebrations is almost like rituals.
By the time you’re reading this newsletter, I’m in Italy. I bet you were wondering why I haven’t returned to the country yet. You were right, here I am. In search and living the “3 Fs”: food, friends and findings. This is basically my understanding of joie de vivre (actually a 4th “f” too: family!). So starting the birthday cycle in Italy seems just the right thing to do this year.
I didn’t plan everything just yet, but on the 10th November (save the date!) I’m spending in London, and it’s been a while since I don’t celebrate the day here, as I created a habit of always having a bday trip.
And planning the celebration and what I want to do, I am basing my decisions on three pillars and incorporating the 4 elements of nature:
mental health: doing something that will prioritise the well-being of my mind, be it visiting a museum (earth), walking in nature (earth and air) and practising mindfulness or watching a good movie that challenges my status quo
spiritual health: understanding the energies of my new solar chart (fire) through the knowledge of astrology and connecting to my inner self (water) to set intentions for the next year, reflecting on patterns of behaviours that I want to let go
physical health: spending time circulating my body energy through a dance or boxing class (earth) or in a spa (water) so it can be transmuted
As we’re also talking about cycles, patterns and intentions, and approaching the end of the year, a period we always do some balance checks, I want to share with you what I’ve been learning this year and the lessons the universe showed me during this period, that it’s serving me daily and will serve in a lifetime. Take it as a summary of the many books I’ve been reading and as if I am sparing you to read more than one thousand pages of sacred knowledge too.
Life is about balancing mental, spiritual and physical health. The three together and in harmony is what gives us a sense of wholeness
Before having an intention and wanting to make something happen, be it a dream, a goal or a wish, make sure you’re willing to work through it. The intention is nothing without action. Yes, we need to meet the energy halfway
We need to bring pleasure to our routine, and not wait for a burnout to retreat. We can live the retreat in our daily life through careful and thoughtful choices. Pleasure doesn’t need to be scarce
The whole significance of life involves knowing that there is light and there is dark and they co-exist and can’t live without the other. In other words, it means that there is no final happy destination, as we also have to face sadness and pain because this is the currency of life. Think about the sun and the moon, the beauty and the ugliness, the hot and the cold, the day and the night, good days and bad days. There is always a duality in everything and this applies to our emotions and reality too
If we resist feeling an emotion, it will come stronger, so can be processed. Do not resist or numb yourself to escape an uncomfortable emotion. Face it, accommodate it, observe it, feel it, and it will pass
Our emotional thoughts are not facts. They are only a possibility of a much bigger scenario and are completely biased. Life is full of grey areas, and not black-and-white thinking. Nuances are possible
A change that endures, it’s formed by consistent slow changes
Therapy takes time
There is always more for you to experience than you think the present moment holds
Our mistakes do not define our worthiness. How people react to your failures says less about you and much more about the compassion for their own mistakes
To start a healing journey, we need to access our dark places, and that’s okay
Medicine is movement and movement keeps the energy flowing
Nothing remains, except change
Everything is in balance
Special moments are not separated from our day-to-day life
This means that the way I am choosing to celebrate one more year of my life is in a way that prioritises what makes me happy. And not only for a week, but for many cycles to come. Another year of life means another year of experience, maturing, understanding, and awakening. And this awakening is translated into these small things that just make the whole thing make sense.
It means a life of not waiting for the weekend to arrive to enjoy an activity and have fun. For Mondays to be as amazing as Fridays. To live a retreat in small little things in my daily routine instead of giving space to this emptiness only after dealing with the negative consequences of overproducing. Balance.
Hi Natalia,
I love your articles,
Your newspaper brightens my moments ,
especially in this autumn season that I LOVE
Congratulations
well done
Lilly