Let's celebrate the world of... words
PORTALS TO POSSIBLE FUTURES
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PORTALS TO POSSIBLE FUTURES
This edition is written in celebration of the power of the written word, where a notebook becomes a personal portal and an invitation for you to bring pen to paper and have the experience yourself.
What would fashion be without literature?
“(…) I suppose that keeping in touch is what notebooks are all about.
And we are all on our own when it comes to keeping those lines open to ourselves: your notebook will never help me, nor mine you.”
Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook”
“LES FEMMES DE LETTRES” — WOMEN OF LETTERS
I started to take my writing work seriously when I bought my first cashmere jumper and invested in pieces that would become my “writer’s uniform”: it says always ready-to-write.
During my formative years and for three years thereafter, I attended the premier institution in France, la Maison d’Education de la Légion d’Honneur. Dressed in the navy and white uniform like my fellow 500 girls, I received a top-notch education. Every Saturday morning, I dedicated six hours to writing dissertations on philosophy, English, history, geography, and French literature—all by hand. I was not keeping a diary back then, but this trained me to see the beyond-powerful connection that exists between our mind, our heart, and our hands.
Our handwritten words are the only ones the Universe can read and translate, and a notebook becomes your personal portal for “keeping in touch” and see what is moving through you.
My eyes practically sparkled with excitement upon seeing the notebooks featured in the AW24 SKALL show named 'Letters' (watch here).
The silhouettes brought me back to my years studying philosophy at La Sorbonne, living in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, hanging out at Le Café de Flore, and daydreaming of becoming une femme de lettres, someday.
The collection is intellectual and elegant, it’s Joan Didion and Simone de Beauvoir, timeless design, with a contemporary twist.
Writing, after all, is about style.
An outfit, just like any sentence, has a beginning, a function, and an end.
And what the writer wears when writing will influence the chosen words and the world.
ENTER THE ‘CHIC ACADEMIA’ ERA
A blank notebook is a portal. It’s my Perfect Portal Space.
It stands as a symbol for Possible Futures — what could be — and where our handwritten words become our collection of seeds while anchoring us in the daily act of tending to our garden.
“We are searching for potential starting points that, with love and care, can grow into something beautiful.”
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Try to picture your outfit, the clothes you choose, and how you bring them together, as a full sentence.
What does it convey? What’s missing? What’s too much? What could be better said?
I. CLASSIC/CHIC/CLASSIC
II. CLASSIC/CASUAL/CLASSIC
III. CREAM CHIC/CASUAL/CLASSIC
“Walk lightly on the earth, walk firmly in your spirit” Yogi Bhajan
IN THE KITCHEN
Just like we balance Classic, Chic, and Casual in the way we dress, we can also balance our food and play with the augmenting (grounding, nourishing, building) quality and the extractive (cleansing) quality of the ingredients. Here, your meal and how you compose it becomes the full sentence.
→ Try this Ayurvedic Pizza recipe from Ayurvedic Diaries! It’s divine. It’s a full and perfectly built sentence, with a visual aid to understand how to balance your food.
NEW MOON PORTAL SPACE
The New Moon in Aquarius happened on Friday, February 9th, at 11:59 pm CET. Take advantage of the next 36 hours to sit down and “keep in touch” with yourself.
What if a pen and a notebook were our most powerful tools?
Bring pen to paper and take advantage of the energy for intention setting, clarity, or a new beginning.
→ What do you wish could last forever?
→ What do you wish to manifest in your life? Write in the present tense as if it is already happening (“I am easily finding myself ….” is a good formula to get you started).
→ Who do you need to be so that success in manifesting this in your life is guaranteed? What needs to be true? (“I need to be someone who…”)
→ How can you love yourself more?
For anyone who feels those questions are too much, and it feels uncomfortable and intimidating to sit here with a blank page, try this following practice.
Try to embrace writing lists over full sentences and paragraphs.
→ List n°1 “Things I wish could last forever”
→ List n°2 “Things, experiences, places, people (etc.) I wish to manifest in my life”
→ List n°3 “Attributes I’d need to embrace to manifest all of the above”
→ List n°4 “Ways I can love myself more”
So much easier, right?
You can turn anything into lists! It’s a good warm-up to any writing practice (think about it like playing dress up with your clothes before picking your outfit of the day…).
MY 5 SECONDS FREE WORKSHOP ON LOVE:
MONTHLY MEDITATION
This edition is inspired by the Power of the Word.
It’s no surprise I picked this meditation as my go-to 11-minute practice — as it works with the mantra for answered prayers. For the kundalini yogis in the room, here is the write-up:
LAST WORDS
Thank you for making time and space to open, read, and take in this edition of THE LIGHTHOUSE.
Explore the previous letters:
006: Don’t be The Best, Be The Only
005: The Mastery of your Light and the Mystery of your Shadows
Infinite blessings,
Ardas Chandra
See you every Sunday morning, at 8 am CET, for THE LIGHT LETTER, my weekly newsletter (for paying subscribers in full, and preview for free subscribers)!
You truly are a lighthouse in my life! So blessed to receive the Light Letter. It always invites me on a journey - a journey of aligning. Bless you!!