Week 35, 2025 — Is it fall already?

Another quiet week at home. The weather has turned cool in Paris, even raining a few times. On Saturday I went for a long walk in the forest and was surprised to find fall foliage.

I’ve restarted indoor rock climbing. It’s great to mix up the range of body movement. I love cycling but repeating the same movement and going in one direction cannot be good for the body. The height and the possibility of an equipment failure (and subsequent fall) still scare me. But I like the cheery atmosphere of my gym, and am unbothered by my utter lack of ability, so commit to going 2-3 times a week for the foreseeable future.

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Oriana and I mapped out the bones of the rest of 2025 for Emotions at Work. We are almost ready to launch a new website, having outgrown the single product one-pager, and will finally start a newsletter along with it. We will run another cohort of Navingating Emotions at Work, this time dedicated to team managers. The hypothesis is that this focus will allow for more targeted messaging/inviting, and even stronger connection and exchange within the group. Most managers become managers by being thrown into the deep end, and supporting them is a cause that's dear to my heart. Let's see how it goes!

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In wrapping up a 1.5-year project about gift economy, I listened to “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The Guardian calls it an "ecologically-inspired alternative to consumerism". The book was a sweet listen, just under 3hrs, and I enjoyed it alot. (which was a bit of a relief, as I haven't managed to work through my copy of Braiding Sweetgrass.)

Collecting is one thing, storing responsibly is another, but increasingly I find the hoarding and accumulation of material wealth to just be gross. Kimmerer argues that it is in fact criminal, and while the book worldview feels quite idealistic overall, I think it taps into the need for hope and inspiration.

Serviceberry talks about the ripple effects of daily acts--how abundance thickens among those who live in gift. Last week I had been gifted a jar of homemade honey, and thought it would be fitting to send back a Tupperware of food where I used this honey instead of sugar. I hope they like it, or at the minimum enjoy trying a new flavor profile. Having my friends in mind made it more fun to go ingredient shopping and cook. It also spurred me to go to a specialist shop I haven't gone to in a while, where I picked up some bitter melons. I hadn't bothered to try the ones available in France because their size and coloring are different from what I know... but it turned out they taste and crunch the same, so now I've re-discovered a great vegetable. Not bad, huh?