My 18 Good Luck Omens + Trends for 2017: WE ALL Need Them!
Mark This One…
Supreme Delight.
One fine, average Friday on the way to the bank, my eyes, and the sunshine, suddenly caught pink-purple, glitter-metallic high heeled boots clip-clopping and spiraling my way…I looked up to see an astonishingly, well-suited, dapper man…
briskly striding towards me, all runway-style, all M-A-J-O-R.
WOW. JUST WOW. WAKE ME UP!
OH MAN, HE’S AN OMEN!
In a flash, I realized how much we all need simple, Familiar portents of happy, even the Spectacular these days…
and how can we build on those to
create a year, a life, of living gorgeously?
WHAT WILL MAKE ((( YOU ))) HAPPY IN 2017…IN ONE WORD?
Hello 2017! I’m usually the quizzical unicorn at dinner parties asking honest, simple and deep questions to elicit spontaneous measures of HAPPY vs. the usual cocktail chatter.
Quiz: Can you tell I am some kind of winking guru quizzer by this picture below? Sure ya can, let me share with you what I discovered during my 2016 winter holiday /cocktail dining quiz sessions.
I asked groups of friends for one word to describe 2016, and we heard “SURRENDER, TRANSITION, VULNERABLE” and the like, while one woman just held up her hands, open and balancing…face all in a quiz … it also kind of looked like the hand gesture for “WTF?”
Hmm,“BLESSED” wasn’t one of the answers. So 2015, I guess. Yup, life grew in complexity for 2016, we all agree. 2017: This is the year to Question everything in order to make life SPECTACULAR. In reviewing the year, I actually discovered that many inspiring, humanistic, and futuristic EXPERIENCES/OMENS already occurred! Along with the impossible and painful…omens that are steps ahead of the curve were right in front of my unicorn horn. (aka, Jewish-girl, quizzicle, yenta-unique-non-surgically-altered nose.)
So in a mere 17 trends, plus 1 to move us forward…here’s our a little thankful, ONE WORD review of 2016 experiences and trends.
(Oh yes, honeychild, some of these are our clients and projects, give us a minute to KVELL! Plus others that make for good omens with hints of YUM-makings for 2017. You’ll get yours, doll! How-to’s and definitions, PLUS! my key WORD and my own winner for PERSON OF THE YEAR, as your reward for getting through another of my long, hopefully inspirational, learn a little something-something, blog rants!)
THE LIST of 18:
ART: DECADE-DANCE
BEAUTY: IMMORTAL
COLOR: GREENERY
DANCE: TOGETHER
DESIGN-TECH: ALIEN BONES, LASER DRONES
DRINK: KOMBUCHA
EXPERIENCES: UNARTHODOX
FASHION: THE FRANCA-EFFECT
FILM-TV: MOONLIGHT
FOOD: BAVARIAN RHAPSODY
HEALTH: MICROBIOME
JUSTICE: ELECTION OF PROTECTION
MUSIC: PRINCE BOWIE ALI
SOCIAL: HOLY TOLEDO!
TRAVEL: VOLUNTOURISM
URBAN DESIGN: ROOF-RAP
VISION: UFO ME
And
WORKOUT: WERK-IN
ready?…
1 ART: DECADE-DANCE
Quiz: And, who is THAT dapper man? It is our CLIENT: Scott Sanders, interior designer, the man who began Ralph Lauren‘s interior design business. A TREND: we are calling Dancing Decades pairs together objects and furnishings equally Spectacular and Familiar, which places inhabitants exactly in the MOMENT for a new definition of comfort. To open 2016, his PROJECT: was the re-imagining of Miami Beach’s iconic Albion Hotel.
Scott, above in the room he designed for Sotheby’s, was asked to design the legendary hotel, famous for hosting the first poolside conversations which birthed Art Basel Miami Beach, steered by the Albion owners, The Rubell Family, ART-world honchos. See the interview we placed in Departures magazine (read more here) with the two stellar visionaries, Mera Rubell, of all things art and hospitality, and Scott, of all things spectacular and familiar in interior design and their 17+ year collaboration.
Of note, here’s the Scott’s Spectacular entrance echoing the original 1930’s Art Deco cruise ship design of architect Igor Polevitsky…
And see the Spectacular wall of paintings by Purvis Young, who was a noted local, self-taught artist the Rubells introduced to the art world, which cozy up the double height ceiling with Familiar.
It is a particularly soothing mix in these times. Ditto the Spectacular sky high atrium of New York City’s Beekman Hotel which opened this year, and the cozy, Familiar lounge down below,
Where a personal text at the bar says: “Your table is ready.”
OMEN FOR 2017: Honoring and care-keeping the (Familiar) history of a shared public space while inspiring the (Spectacular)…
Quiz: Didn’t the Familiar and Spectacular also resonate as the power of the beautiful people standing at Standing Rock?
2 BEAUTY: IMMORTAL
Quiz: Speaking of beautiful, why is that cactus holding a fancy perfume bottle?
Because I asked it to pose for our PROJECT: The Immortal Beloved perfume launch in the Wild West and…
…Slow Luxury bespoke perfume experiences in New York City. TREND: Immortal Beloved is the name of a new perfume as well as a new attitude in our relationship to materials of beauty. Scent and beauty products are not vigorously regulated against pervasive toxins, and thankfully more people are interested in the “immortal” long view of natural, organic, and traditional materials and methods. Our Slow Luxury initiative fosters the creation of artisan bespoke perfumes for individuals, complimentary scents for couples, and even travel experiences. Above, our CLIENT: Maria McElroy, Master Perfumer; House of Cherry Bomb perfumes at one of our events at the swellegant Cornelia Spa at The Surrey Hotel.
Bespoke perfume for couples launched for Valentine’s Day 2016 at Cornelia Spa and was covered in IN New York Magazine and in November we launched Immortal Beloved, The World’s First Perfume and Coloring Book at the University of Arizona’s Museum of Art‘s gala benefit and pop-up shop event. Read more about that, here.
OMEN FOR 2017: Formerly you could buy Maria’s perfumes by the bundle in Bergdorfs and Sephora among others…ho hum, very pre-2017! NOW it’s about more than a new spritz…it’s about how YOU IMAGINED and MADE that perfect IMMORTAL SCENT for yourself. Omen! You can travel with us to Marrakech to design custom perfume, clothing, and furnishings in 2017. Read more here.
See Maria’s Instagram from her December trip and teleport.
Quiz: Might you be among the growing many who happily support the planet by eating sustainably, curiously, and greenly? #3 is for you.
3 COLOR: GREENERY
Quiz: Who are these dapper men and greenery? Meet master chef David Bouley at his Bouley Botanical restaurant space in Tribeca, New York City and our CLIENT: Dr. Pedre, integrative physician. We discovered Chef Bouley’s PROJECT: Doctor and the Chef Series, an evening featuring a multi-course tasting menu, along with talks by cutting-edge doctors, together in the fresh herb-wall-gardened greenery space…and connected the doc, thus…an omen.
TREND: “Greenery” is Pantone‘s color for 2017 and we were immersed in it April and October for two special dinner collaborations at Bouley Botanical. Both evenings were a memorable, extraordinary culinary journey through multiple dishes, like this green, non-green Hibiscus Granite New York State Cascade Grape Sorbet, with Tahitian Vanilla ice…and below the green, non-dairy version, Avocado-n’ice cream from Supercharged Foods beauty and healer, Lee Holmes, our table-mate. Catch the dinner recap here along with coverage by Robb Report!
OMEN FOR 2017: Greenery is Healing through Food and Awareness of the link between ourselves and the planet…Heaven on Earth!
Quiz: What else is supreme linking? (note: linking, not licking, I know because we were just discussing ice cream, you got inspired, but try to focus, ok?)
4 DANCE: TOGETHER
Quiz: Who are these people advocating for politicians to dance vs. debates and duels? Raising our collective emotional intelligence has been a trend and is clearly needed in this world. I was so happy to envision and enlist Tanya Rivero, host of Wall St. Journal’s Lunch Break to tell the inspiring story of Dancing Classrooms and how a TREND: the art of partner dancing (Ballroom; Fox Trot; Tango; Merengue; even The Hustle) as art to heal and engage kids.
PROJECT: We were honored to do PR and event production for CLIENT: Dancing Classroom’s Elevate event this year. The inspired gentlemen above are Dancing Classrooms’ founder, Pierre Dulaine who literally lights up a room, and MC for the Elevate benefit evening, JW Cortes of Fox‘s Gotham, a veritable hero of an actor who headlined a Latino lineup of Grammy nominee talent, and one who spoke eloquently of how “the arts can and will save lives.”
Pierre said he was an awkward child and ballroom dancing gave him confidence and poise; he then taught dance to kids in one classroom in NYC as a way for kids to grow in emotional intelligence, respect, and hope towards their success in life. From one class to now 50,000 children in the US and 5 global locations, Pierre’s story has since inspired movies, such as Mad Hot Ballroom, Take the Lead, and Dancing in Jaffa, where he introduced partner dance to kids in the Middle East.
See the Wall St. Journal segment here, with Tanya’s super smart lineup of other inspired guests. See the boldfaced names who came to dance at Elevate here.
OMEN FOR 2017: Dance Together!
Quiz: If Standing Rock was powerful, can you imagine if we held a dance party and everyone came? Ballroom dancers, Burning Man kids, and party people dancing in serious joy. There’s some visuals and change dancing up on the front line for our rights, eh?
And if you are tired of hearing that Millenials cause this and Millenials cause that (they do)…some brilliant Millenials in science and tech push the globe and our noggins too. See here…
5 DESIGN-TECH:
ALIEN BONES, LASER DRONES
PROJECT: This past November, we were invited to design a pop-up shop for Head to Toe, The University of Arizona Museum of Art‘s gala exploring how to wear art in 2016. Flying to the American West always makes a wrinkle in Time for us…expanding ideas and new linking from ancient bones to modern laser-swerves in design, a nod to the sweeping TREND: of new vision via drones.
Above is a design of Merve Oztemel, from Istanbul, whose laser-sculptural art we introduced to the US and the pop-up. Merve’s headgear sits somewhere between fascinators, alien bones, and Princess Leia.
Below, the latest architectural WOW of Santiago Calatrava, the World Trade Center transport hub, called Oculus, is of the same spirit, which we say sits somewhere between bird flight, whale bones, and drone vision.
Just to push further, in the Feng Shui I practice, there is an ancient Tantric practice of astral body meditation, done to clear the mind and energy, which essentially does what drones do, float, show us the expanse, and look back at us from another perspective. Amazing…this Techy-Trekky-Tantric future show is just beginning!
ODE TO ANCIENT FUTURISTS 2016: Back in Arizona, when we co-MC’d the art to wear fashion show at the art museum, in addition to designing the pop-up shop, we noted in our commentary that fascinating fashion and design explorations no longer need be tied to major runways or platforms. Invention is everywhere. Read more about the project, the fashion we peeped and the gala here.
What’s your Oculi-Spectaculari invention for 2017?
I naturally had to do that oculi-see-me-I-am-a-nerd-selfie thing upon my visit this year to the spectacular 66th floor of the new WTC, itself a drone view of the Oculus! I was invited by event planner-maximus, Sarah-Jane Benison, to see the studio-in-the-sky of painter and filmmaker, Marcus Robinson, who has been documenting the re-birth and re-build for over 10 years!
OMEN FOR 2017: Tech-design via matched natural patterns inside and out inspires the new spirituality. Quiz: Or is it the other way around?
6 DRINK: KOMBUCHA
Quiz: Happy New Year 2017 and why on Earth do we find ourselves toasting with Kombucha instead of champagne?
Getting the message! Between the one day I peeped a well-known sushi chef’s kitchen kitted out with a production line up of kombucha tea in mason jars getting cultured…to this Inc. article on GT Dave, the founder of GT Kombucha, (below) who began his business at age 15! and turned this “fermented probiotic beverage into a $600 million category–one that he still dominates”…a product whose healing benefits abound…plus celebs do it so it’s a TREND: via Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Reese Witherspoon.
Quiz: WHY are you still asking why? Follow the unicorns, It tastes tantalizing, gives no hangover, and is fermented health in a bottle!
OMEN FOR 2017: Cheers to visionary unicorn entrepreneurs, GT Dave began at age 15! At the rate that self-motivated individuals are carving out new paths, plus all the opportunities in health, tech, and the environment, no need to wait for Trump gymnastics, my people!
Quiz: Why not question status quo, and make money for good? Hint Hint: As of this moment in time, there are no beautiful bars or lounges serving kombucha in NYC. Incredible! Opportunity! Happy!
7 EXPERIENCES: UNARTHODOX
TREND: A little UNARTHODOX HANDS-ON fun is always a good idea. PROJECT: We made a little NY1 lights-camera-action happen in our CLIENT: Unarthodox‘s Chelsea studio, where NY1 arts producer Stephanie Simon shed her shoes for some delicious multi-media, free-form creativity classes and happenings. Watch the segment here.
In other hands-on news, gallery Les Atelier Courbet invited us to patch, sew, and dye Japanese traditional textiles as part of NY Textile Month. Imagine Brooklynites ceremoniously gathering their soiled white garments like a prayer offering, and queuing up to the vast indigo vats…
…lorded over by master indigo farmer-dyers of BUAISOU visiting from Japan, everyone’s past lives as peasants humming through their astral bodies.
Peep these “Boro Textiles” antique hemp and cotton pants at $1800. or so, above at Les Atelier Courbet. “Boro Textiles” is not a cute clothing collection crafted in Brooklyn or Queens, it’s the folk craft of patched garments made in the Edo Period in Japan, 1615 – 1868. The patched fabrics, hand sewn piece-by-piece, were used again and again for work-wear. Today we value the aesthetic worn-out condition as intriguing evidence, “…layers of historical and social information, giving priceless value to the non-precious textile.”
The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum wrote, “There’s an expression Mottai-nai! in Japanese, which we say to remind ourselves not to let anything go to waste. The idea has origins in ancient Buddhist philosophy but has long since become part of our everyday thinking, an attitude of respect toward nature and care toward the material things we use.”
OMEN FOR 2017: Everyone is suddenly a Luddite Shaman, desiring blue hands vs. manicures, via three OMENS we love: hands-on creativity, conscious interaction with the environment, and respect for creating and celebrating material goods that last.
8 FASHION: THE FRANCA-EFFECT
I first met the glowing, inspiring, innovator Franca Sozzani, Vogue Italia‘s editor-in-chief, the year we supported Fashion-4-Development (click here to read more on that PROJECT), an initiative of the United Nations, for which she was Goodwill Ambassador. She was a Great Italian Love Song…unfortunately, Franca passed on this year, 2016, but not without laying her very important, bejeweled gauntlet down for the rest of us.
For 28-years at the helm, she was known to let her creatives take free-rein, bestowing beauty and provoking images and ideas on the world, from her groundbreaking first “all-black” issue of Vogue in 2008 (oh lord, it took that long???) and her support for sustainable development in Africa.
She approached me after I spoke at a Fashion-4-Development round-table for sustainable fashion, she said she admired our Slow Luxury ventures, especially our travel to Marrakech, invited us to her home there, and curious to hear more.
OMEN FOR 2017: Many in the fashion industry and beyond were inspired by this powerful, golden woman. I have this theory that when inspiring people pass, they have instilled their impact into those around them to carry the torch, grow stronger, give more. As admired editor, Emil Wilbekin tweeted: “Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people – the beauty within.” Franca was a champion for THIS. The Franca-Effect will always steer our creativity and bespoke, sustainable travel adventures. Quiz: Who is your Franca- Effect for 2017?
Quiz: Speaking of inspiration, what stories and images are now in your heart from 2016, what guides your life from that?
9 FILM, TV: MOONLIGHT
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close–up.”
Reflection of “close-up” hit home on three TRENDS: for me in 2016…mobile phones capturing people on the protest front lines, those murdered from behind on the street, and PROJECT: my dream to see my own social justice film on the big screen.
Quiz: Are you squirming? The truth is that, along with the beautiful, the horrific must galvinize our creativity.
First, the beautiful. The most extraordinary movie I saw this year and the opportunity to be involved in more international TV production and creation moved my creative compass forward. Exhibit A, Moonlight, a groundbreaking film in which we experience the hardships and joys of a young, African-American boy and man in three phases of his life…a portrait up-close and very personal, which is precisely why this film has been nominated for dozens of awards, which it so well-deserves.
A new view of masculine FEELING, kindness, strength, homosexuality, and love. Close-ups? The intimacy that this film engenders gives me some hope for humanity, dissolving the 4th wall as we’ve never on the screen.
The image above, when the boy, bullied and battered by life (named Chiron, for the mythical centaur, who as the master of the healing arts, could not heal himself and willingly gave up his immortality) goes to the ocean with a new father figure/friend, who holds him in the water (emotions) and invites the boy to relax and float softly intoning, “I got you, I promise I won’t let you go.” It’s a powerful moment of trust through pain that every human can relate to, the allowing, the moonlight which always shadows our sun. We see ourselves in both roles, the protecting parent and the trusting child. The intimacy of this scene plays out deep within us.
Well, maybe not as intimate as BEING on screen!
Yep, Exhibit B, it’s a shameless segue to my own 2016 international film and TV production adventures! PROJECT: Here below is the gang we gathered (in a speedy 2 days) for a Rockin’ NY segment airing this year for Sieben TV, Germany’s second largest privately owned television company with (r. to l.) CLIENT/FRIENDS: Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin; Scott Sanders; Tomas Hill, founder of East End Limouine; and moi.
This is our fourth video/film/TV co-create with Ms. Costin, assembling this cast of characters for this story, including a gourmet lunch from White & Blue Restaurant and craft beer from Paulaner NYC Brewhouse, booth on the Bowery.
OMEN FOR 2017: Film galvanizes us, from mobile phones exposing the violence this summer against people of color, to groundbreaking movie portrayals, and to selfie boom-boom videos everywhere. Pain galvinizes us. Keep filming my friends, we are all now the media, inventing and watching ourselves everywhere, and hmmm…
Quiz: OBSERVE and SERVE. Isn’t that what YOGA tells us to do?
10 FOOD: BAVARIAN RHAPSODY
11 HEALTH: MICROBIOME
Quiz: How do you make your little earth garden inside grow, Grasshopper?
In the land of TREND: Microbiome, over a trillion organisms swirl, an inner world cranking out as much feel-good dopamine as in the head and where 90 percent of the body’s serotonin floats. Not only must this goopy inner-soup be fed well, it became a Macro TREND in 2016. More than what’s on your plate and in your body, it’s a whole body/lifestyle approach, healing persons and planets. Our ‘science project’ came to life this year, in the form of our PROJECT: the Happy Gut site and video launch, and the Good Morning America segment for CLIENT: Dr. Vincent Pedre and his book and brand platform.
Healing through food and awareness of the link between ourselves and the planet…Heaven on Earth! The Microbiome is a new frontier re-making how we think about our relationship with food and the basis for conditions from Autism to brain health. Healing does double duty for both our bodies and and the planet by insisting on organic, non-GMO crops and sustainable animal rearing… and eating slowly with friends! Peep this dinner party video we co-produced on happy, healthy eating for Dr. Pedre.
And…Kudos to the Doc, appearing on Good Morning America to share his garden/digestion analogy we helped him prepare for his moment in the TV cameras with Robin Roberts and millions of viewers!
OMEN FOR 2017: Food trends may just unite humanity to save the planet. Whether uniting against GMO’s pesticides, reviving old/health food traditions, more organics…even WASTed food. Peep the revolution by Chef Dan Barber and his creative collab to create new dishes from food otherwise wasted by the industry.
12 JUSTICE: ELECTION OF PROTECTION
13 MUSIC: PRINCE BOWIE ALI
Popping out of a meeting the week before the holidays on the corner of Bowery and Houston, my eye caught a massive Bill Cunningham, then a massive Buzz Aldrin staring down at me from high space. While everyone will miss being snapped by Bill and the possibility of outer space adventures with Buzz…these Immortal Beloveds beaming down from atop of the Logan Hicks‘ mural, were actually part of a massive slide show of TREND: heroes and heroines passed this year and a supreme moment of Grace. As unexpected, generous, and surprising street art in the heart of the winter cold, it captured the shock and the impact of the “larger-than-life” majors we “lost.”
The music triad of Prince Bowie Ali fit together for me as royalty, my musical soul is in eternal gratitude to all three. Bowie gave us the nerdy androgyne, perfect for my teen angst; Prince gave us the pansexual; handy for being in my twenties, during which I sported the sexuality and the same afro upon my head as Prince Pan. Yes, I admit that I ventured an “ow-a-ah,” Prince-style here and there.
And before both of them, terrifying, true, and wildly inspiring in my childhood, Ali, whom Rolling Stone called “a rhyming trickster“ and wrote about what I always knew, that his “legendary putdowns, toasts and snaps are part of hip-hop’s DNA,” in this excellent article tracing Ali’s influence on rap music.
THAT influence on all spoken word, all music, and all Self-Awareness throughout time. THAT deserves a street. Here, New York’s 33rd Street in front of Madison Square Garden became “Muhammad Ali Way” in 2016.
OMEN FOR 2017: Now my musical prayer…can we all stop looking down on men and women slain on our streets, our jails, our houses of worship and fun?
Can humans stop looking down on ourselves as scared, unloved nerds or looking too high up to heaven awaiting virgins and other religious prizes causing us to act out of fear and hatred?
Can we instead look deep into our center, our true HEARTS as HUMANS and change our every thought and action from hate to love so as to influence the world? I pray so.
14 SOCIAL: HOLY TOLEDO!
Quiz: Just go get what you want, OK?
and Quiz: Who is this man?
PROJECT: I drew this image of Derek Blasberg, he a multi-titled one: socialite, humorist, Vanity Fair‘s Our Man on the Street, Gagosian gallery senior-staff, and the host of the television show, CNN Style, and passed the original on to him via a mutual friend. We are not yet on his ‘get up on my St Barths’ boat sista’ terms…so I did hope he got it…and yet…through the magic of Instagram, see below. OMEN! He got it.
No matter what is a mess in this world, it’s still a magical world of connection! This is what gets me down kissing the ground! In another example, I read that fashion designer, Marc Jacobs likes to cuddle with his dog Neville and watch RuPaul’s Drag Race…just as Neville was about to launch his first Rizzoli book since his Instagram successes. Did the cuddle-kids see this yet? IDK. They will!
And then sometimes the social-love-magic happens so randomly that one feels OMEN’d. This little fashion-inspired sketch below, after I first cycled on New York City’s Citibikes.
This sketch was liked by the Toledo’s, Isabel and Ruben, the married artist/designers that have been one of NYC’s most amazing creative couples since the 80’s, here one of my favorite articles on them, in Harpers Bazaar. Their “like” had me in a makeout session with the floor! Beyond Excited.
CLIENT: Me!…all these drawings were part of my PROJECT: to chronicle inspiring NYC and to draw for the simple pleasure of it.
OMEN FOR 2017: The Desire, the Creative Urge. Definitely go with that feeling for 2017. If it means turning off the phone, ceasing the shopping online or a pledge to kick the Netflix-fix for one night, I promise you benefits to open up worlds for you! Want your portrait done by moi? Click here.
15 TRAVEL: VOLUNTOURISM
Oh nuthin’…just a good morning wake-up, brunch with giraffes, along with the millions who read USA Today. Here is the article in which we placed our Slow Luxury travel partner, Epic Road, leaders of the TREND: “voluntourism” and “transformative travel.” Epic Road is on Travel & Leisure‘s A-List and you can read more about our latest adventure, our PROJECT: the Slow Luxury Epic Road trip to Marrakech, to create sustainable bespoke perfume, clothing, and home design objects, here.
OMEN FOR 2017: We ALL have an opportunity now to serve and heal the world…we say go for it!
16 URBAN DESIGN: ROOF-RAP
This sooo warms my hippie heart!
TREND: “Grow Food,” See the video below, a rap song created by kids in North Minneapolis growing food with Appetite For Change, an .org using food as a tool to build health, wealth, and social change ...and rap lyrics! I was crying with joy when I found this video that went viral:
“Cocaine doesn’t grow in my community, but kale does,” affirms Denver-based DJ Cavem. With creds as a music educator, Grammy Award nominee and international recording artist along his yogi wife, Alkemia, they created their Sprout That Life Barnraiser fundraising project to link music, hip-hop to jobs in the green sector via their educational curriculum. As a supporter, this unicorn is KVELL-ing over this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwVgbdSNilg
The New Farming is an omen for a better world. In cities, on roofs, by kids and in winter…consider these fun facts from just the tip of the iceberg of urban farm PROJECTS here in NYC:
In 2016, one of the most high profile urban agriculture projects worldwide, Gotham Greens’ rooftop greenhouse, grew over 10 million heads of lettuce and herbs for 300+ customers, donated over 30,000 lbs. of healthy produce to schools and food pantries across NY and Chicago, donated over 40,000 seedlings to local schools and gardens and saved over 10 million gallons of water. And then there is Brooklyn Grange, where the Pagan, bridal lady below is grazing, which operates the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, atop two roofs in NYC, and grows over 50,000 lbs of organically-cultivated produce per year. Plus, people celebrate up there!
OMENS FOR 2017: Beautiful Life! Considering that food production and feeding a hungry, warming planet is a major DESIRE, positive TRENDS, like grants for farmers and the growth of tech innovations, making headlines like “Winter Farming is the Hottest Thing” …these are OMENS which make us rap, dance, and sing on this floating Earthship.
17 VISION: UFO ME
Now, from an even higher ROOF RAP…I happened to be reading The Fabric of The Cosmos by Brian Greene, and there on page 425, I was astonished to read that cosmic rays, which are “highly energetic atomic nucleus or other particles traveling through space at a speed approaching that of light,” originating from outside our solar system, still, 9 decades after their discovery, are a complete mystery as to where they come from.
Quiz: Why?
They may come from supernova explosions or …?, and are mentioned as causing a range of effect from mobile phone blips to cancer to climate change. There is even an Oh-My-God particle (it’s real name!) with the highest energy recorded yet at 20,000,000 times more energetic than the energy ever measured as an extra-galactic object.
OMEN FOR 2017: I did not know of this. Stuff from outside our solar system is like religion, open to hypothesis, no one really knows and the only fitting response is to carry on in LOVE. Given the cozy place science and religion blurs will find in the White House for 2017…LOVE is the message and the way.
18 WORKOUT: WERK-IN
PROJECT: While I always yap on about community to work out woes and soothe the soul, I shall never offer up my body temple to groupie things like ugh: TRENDS: Soul Cycle, Cuddle Parties, or Las Vegas-style water-calisthenics on a cruise ship (I made that one up.) Torture-chambers, all. If I’m gonna work out angst or my flesh..and commune with humanity, I’m on a hot dance floor, a yoga mat or running track, or weaving through the masses on city streets, very high heels on, music up…or marching with a few million other people for freedom.
So when a friend coerced me to try the latest workout class-ugh- TREND: The Class with Taryn Toomey, rumored to be the hardest work-out ever, involving both yoga mats and optional sneakers (?) I prayed hard on it my sisters and brothers, I prayed on the torture… and then surrendered.
It starts like this below, cool music, cool vibe via Taryn teacher-talk. Into it. Little energetic leaps, ok.
And before you know it, you’ve clocked about 10,000 of the little/huge jump-ups and fun/jump/torture/push-up/hand-stands, see below, to really loud rock-n-roll anthems while Toomey raps (screams) yogic-ish, blissful power talk that would inspire a nerd or a queen. I altered equally between these two states of being, which I think is exactly the OBSERVE which heals for a WERKOUT/WERK-IN.
I had all the QUEENLY peak “wow-surpassing myself!”-“I am a champion”-” wow-I’m so high” and NERD crying moments. Not to mention the bliss of doing this in tandem with some hard-a__s NY’ers. In short, we werked our supermodel __’s off. CLIENT: ME. PROJECT: Our Body.
OMEN: Workouts are best when they WERK-IN both body-helter-skelters plus yogic-like mind-melters.
The other community/group activity I always adore are creative enterprises which support community, become community. I love when creative work is available and accessible to all, case in point, The Alpha Workshops, which I wrote about earlier this year, after attending their gala benefit. The Alpha Workshops are an artisan’s atelier modeled on the famed Omega Workshops, the Weiner Werkstatte, the Bauhaus, and the American Arts & Crafts movement. Alpha is “is dedicated to creating beauty and changing lives.” They are the nation’s only non-profit organization providing HIV-positive individuals with industry specific training and employment in the decorative arts.
On top of that gorgeous gesture, they even excel at the precious, small acts of gratitude and I’m so grateful they shared this on their social media, “If you haven’t been over to see Jade Dressler‘s dreamy, inspirational, freewheeling blog it’s a must visit- and we’re honored to be mentioned for the original art at this year’s Alpha Awards (whose “layered beauty rivaled the new prints from Italy”) in this lovely piece on Jade’s inspiration du jour.”
And here’s the real-real “inspiration du jour“…the White Helmet women volunteers in Aleppo.
The healing of the world is literally in our hands. “WE ARE THE ONES WE’RE WAITING FOR.”
“Studies show that around the world and here at home- the surest way to lift a family or community is to lift a woman. When a woman rises, she brings her people up with her. When she rises, families rise, communities rise, and the world rises. Together Rising exists to heal the world, one HER at a time.”
Those quoted words by Glennon Doyle Melton, who put together, Together Rising, the non-profit organization that has raised over four million dollars for families around the world through its Love Flash Mobs, and a community of women, who lately has raised hundreds of thousands for Help Refugees and White Helmets on the ground in Aleppo.
I found out about this work through following Marie Forleo, who became an official project partner of The Compassion Collective and joined forces with the likes of Glennon Doyle Melton, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brené Brown, Cheryl Strayed, Rob Bell, Valarie Kaur and Laverne Cox.
I mention all this because just one thread led me to the Power of Together. Thank you to Marie Forleo, and everyone. Community begins here. Now.
And Oh! What an Omen it was…it was called the “Women’s March,” where plenty (perhaps millions!) of women and men around the world marched for the freedoms we hold dear. I joined in NYC, for the first time ever in a protest march, and it was historic, healing, cheerful, inspiring, creative, and fun!
A New York Times image…times this by many streets blocked, estimates say 400K. Easily! All of Midtown looked like this!
See? I did it…here’s our little posse. I werked-it-out and it felt so good!
OMEN for 2017. The Feel-Good Workout-Werk-in Formula. The Feel-Good moves from Self, to Others, and then En Masse. Familiar and Spectacular!
PERSON OF THE YEAR! YOU. YOU reading this right now, YOU hold the greatest power of LOVE to share and give. ‘Nuff said.
ONE WORD for 2017: It’s two words, but its important to go the extra mile and add your action to GOOD…that new COMBO WORD is DO GOOD.
WHAT WILL MAKE ((( YOU ))) HAPPY IN 2017…
IN ONE WORD?
DO GOOD.
There it is! Cheers my brethrens and sistrens!
Thank you for reading, caring, and being an inspiration to me!
xo Jade
***
Photo credits: Many by us, others gladly credited,
such as the indigo dying photo by J. Travis Smith
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