september 2024 // road trips & lake dips

drawing summer to a close with a sagittarian class focused on hip and thigh opening

monthly playlist // natural satellite yoga - september 2024

hi friends! instead of a longer essay this month, here is a short scrapbook from my recent road trip around Lake Michigan featuring some short poems written in tanka.

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circle tour scrapbook -

This August, my husband and I drove our little Honda clockwise around Lake Michigan starting from our home in Chicago. We made many stops for camping and swimming and biking and eating and hanging with dear friends, as we slowly traversed the 1,100+ miles around our favorite lake.

This has always been a bucket list trip for me, a feeling intensified after living in California where I experienced so many incredible landscapes. I returned to Illinois keen on finding the wildness and beauty of the Midwest region. The circle tour did not disappoint! We will certainly be back for another round… next time via bike.

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Lake Michigan (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)

a gloaming time swim

under cotton candy light

smooth lavender waves

held both focus and body

pressing close yet still... remote

Lake Superior (Munising, Michigan)

a sparkling cold plunge 

the day the clouds blew a w a y

clear to icy depths

beyond the wrecks we’re gifted

a true warmth she rarely shares

Lake Huron (Mackinac Island, Michigan)

a tiny bike tour 

with a poorly hidden dunk

we traversed the rocks 

still in sight of the big bridge

and gleefully dipped our hearts

Lake Michigan (Frankfort, Michigan)

a sandy sandwich

bright sunshine beaming loudly

on frigid waters

we bravely walk back

into a hug from a friend

Wishing you a beautiful last few weeks of summer!

with love,

juli

september 2024 moodboard // small space for recent loves

• voices of bantu by abel selaocoe - a beautiful write-up on him

• nausea by jean-paul sartre

• worlds beyond number - a long form dnd game that is oh-so-good

• the tour de france femme 2024 was incredible, with a nail biting last stage

• a gold medal for arshad nadeem - i watched a fair amount of the olympics and this win really stood out for me as a pure olympic moment

• the work of jin choi and thomas shine

• [there is a hole at] by tada chimako

• carspiracy by global cycling network

• muldoon’s pasties - i feel like i need to publicly apologize for hatin’ on pasties all this time, they are indeed delicious (the veggies ones at least)

• the life and art of gwen frostic - her art accompanies each poem photographed above

• me all summer (aka sneezin’)

[mom’s garden treasures, summer 2024]

a haiku 4 u:

the evolution
of humanity is not 
upward it's inward