3 Things This Week #6

Mother's Day recap, garden beginnings, and a wellness culture takedown

Welcome to a weekly report on three things in my life or on my mind.

1. The Beginner Gardener

I’ve talked about my mental block around my longtime gardening fantasy. A couple of months ago, I finally started super small by planting wildflower seeds in one of our garden boxes. And guess what — they’re now fully in bloom! I love the pop of color they’ve added to our backyard and the little mood boost I get whenever I spot them.

I just bought some dill, parsley, and cucumber seeds for our second garden box. My neighbor, who has had amazing success with her garden, also offered to share some of her favorite Rancho Gordo heirloom beans and have her carpenter husband build me a little trellis. Baby steps!

2. The Allure of Wellness Culture

I came across a New York Times interview with Amy Larocca, author of “How to be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time,” a new book examining our cultural fixation on wellness.

Larocca admits to indulging in what she dubs “recreational wellness,” and as someone with a lifelong weakness for anything promising to optimize health or beauty, I appreciate her self-awareness and astute insights.

“Ms. Larocca, who spent 20 years at New York magazine in various roles including fashion director, is no stranger to the intensely human draw to believe that some of these practices will give her a control over her life and her body that she knows is fundamentally unattainable — which may be the emotional core of our wellness obsession.”

In the interview, she calls out the beauty industry for using “wellness as a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card when it wants to pretend it’s feminist.” I’m SO here for this kind of talk.

She was inspired to write the book after seeing how underserved communities suffered the highest death rates during the pandemic:

“[W]ellness had become this thing where we’re being sold our own bodies with the same marketing techniques that people use to sell handbags or shoes or lipstick. It’s incredibly dangerous to live in a society that treats health like a luxury product.”

I’ve added the book to my reading list and will report back.

3. Mother’s Day Recap

My husband ordered me a bouquet from one of my favorite neighborhood flower shops and took the kids to pick up bagel sandwiches from Nomad Donuts for breakfast.

From there, I requested a family hike, and we got in a few miles at Blue Sky Ecological preserve. (We did the first part of this trail. My oldest loves to read the storybook pages posted along the path.) The highlight was our snack break at a picnic area shaded by live oaks, where the girls frolicked, climbed trees, and complained about ants.

Overall a lovely day, no brunch reservations or jewelry required — though I wouldn’t have said no to the latter!