Hey cheries,

What does "elegance" mean to you?  

In Garance Dore's exquisitely written and illustrated book Love x Style x Life, she raises what I think is a fascinating question "What is elegance?" I'm reflecting on a sense of true elegance that extends deeper than fashion.

Yves Saint Laurent gives his answer above, which may sound sweet and gooey, but I love it!  Sometimes marshmallow goodness is indeed at the center of our happiest, most heartfelt and elegant moments in life.  

The heart's why we're truly alive.  It's our vital force.  Why shouldn't elegance be inextricably connected to our hearts?

Garance goes on to say that elegance is kindness, making others feel good, encouraging them to be comfy in themselves, at ease and happy.  

Refreshing.  Natural.  Easy.  

I'll share something with you.  I had lunch with a friend last week.   We talked about everything under the sun.  Caught up on news of our families, lives, and businesses.  Shared our hearts and minds.  She's the kind of friend that even when we haven't seen each other in ages, when we do get together, it feels like it was just yesterday.  We pick up the thread of our conversation as if we'd just stepped away a moment ago.  

When we floated over to the topic of business, a substantial part of our lives, I confessed that for the last few months I've been feeling "stuck".  Not depressed or upset, but just stuck, like I'm wading through heavy mud, and sense the potential for sinking if I don't get unstuck.  And, the sooner, the better.  "Yesssss" she said.  

Isn't it one of the best things in life to feel "branche" (connected) with someone?

Fall has always been an exciting time for me.  It means launching new products, jumping into new adventures, hosting comfort food dinner parties, dreaming about a new Halloween costume to replace my default vampire-cat ensemble, getting all revved up for the holidays, writing a novel in November,... Optimism reigns. 

But this year, it's been different.  There's been an intangible malaise, a heaviness, a cloud about to burst, an omnipresent viscosity, an immobility that's swallowing up my energy, my vital force, my joie de vivre.  Alone, I hadn't uncovered the answer to explain why, and for better or worse, I'm the type of person who needs to know why.

As we stood outside the restaurant before heading to our cars, my friend said "Do you think this has something to do with the political situation?"  

And it hit me like a weekend old flying bagel on the side of my head! 

That's it.

Everything is energy, right?  

Energy doesn't stay in one place.  It moves around.  Sweeps you up.  Carries you away.  Before you know it, you've arrived in Negative Land.   You're on your second glass of Chardonnay and don't mind digging into a bag of Cheetos (why bother tossing some into a bowl, you've moved beyond that, talk about elegance), glued to talking heads Wolf, Don or Poppy on CNN.  

You can't believe what you're hearing otherwise reasonably intelligent rational people say as they spar, dredging up the muck of life, stuff from trenches we should all be soaring high above by now.  And then, you feel stuck. Surprise.

A few days ago, a friend in Norway posted on Facebook that she started waking up with terrible headaches.  Another friend, beyond non-biblical pregnancy age, began feeling queazy.  My lunch friend and I feel stuck.   

We're all happy healthy go getters, forging our paths, finding joy and love in the moment.  We carpe diem until the cows come home. Stuck for us is crazy city.  That's precisely why we acknowledge we've got to get out of this place of stuck-ness.  

Now that we know WHY (thanks to a flying bagel beyond its expiration date...hey, sometimes answers come in mysterious ways), the question becomes HOW.

Then, my thoughts travel back to Garance Dore's book, her reflections on elegance, beauty, kindness, heart.

Let's be kind to one another.  Let's be elegant.  Let's be Queens and Princesses of Kindness and Elegance.  Take a bath tonight cherie, and meditate on this.  

Let's share this kindness, this elegance of the heart with the world.  

Can you think of a better way to get unstuck?

Open your arms, your heart, your mind, it's coming your way.

Hugs, xoxo

Raulla S. Mitchell, Creator/Director

RED NOTE BOTANICA