Happy Sunday to my friends! Ten Honeypots in, isn’t that something? Thank you to everyone who has read and commented and shared and submitted and subscribed- getting to create a little community with you all has meant the whole world to me. I know that paid subscriptions aren’t always an option for everyone, so to those of you who have generously opted to support this operation monetarily- thank you from the bottom of my heart! Your support means more hours per week that I can dedicate to this space, and I can’t thank you enough. Heads up, this post is filled with pictures and is going to cut off at the bottom! So if you’d like a smooth reading experience, I might suggest scrolling to the bottom now and clicking “view entire message” :).
Jesse and I have recently started the endearing, rather elderly habit of taking ourselves for a stroll in our sweet backyard garden. We will both be plonking away on our computers in our indoors best (pajamas, sweats, glasses for me) and then one of us will say, I want to check on the garden, and we both slide on our garden clogs and mosey around on our modest plot of earth for 5-7 minutes. We look for new treasures left by John Wayne, the lawless squirrel with huge balls who is dominating our backyard with his rage and antiquing habits, see if anything new is blooming, or if any new friends have come to visit. This past week, I was delighted to find a caterpillar (!) getting ready to bundle up cocoon-style on the branch of a pomegranate tree gifted to us by our friend Maryleigh. What a win for the morning shuffle!
After we ambled back inside and kicked off our clogs, I texted my family group chat to tell them about my incredibly eventful morning. My dad- a lover of all creatures and absolute hound dog for symbolism- was immediately on board for this potent harbinger of change, growth, evolution, and beauty. Or maybe he was just excited about the bug, who knows.
The conversation quickly moved on, and I thought that was all there was to it. The next evening I unrelatedly texted my dad a reflection I was having about my Self- a little moment of learning that I wanted to share with my pop. To my surprise there were not a followup question from him, but a swift transition away from the topic at hand:
To which he replied,
Well excuse me.
Was this an attempt to connect the caterpillar’s transformation to my own? A bug’s journey that we could look to for guidance? Or my father’s hyper-fixation on a creature whose present metamorphosis was more interesting than my own nightly ramblings. Either way, I dutifully trudged out to the garden to check on our new friend.
In my naiveté, I thought that this documentation would calm the beast- the beast being my dad who apparently couldn’t get enough of this bug- and we would perhaps be returning back to the topic of my own, human life. But turns out the man was just getting started.
Now I was willing to patiently dole out detail after detail about this little backyard visitor mid-heart to heart because 1. I was similarly invested in his journey (the bug’s), 2. I think it’s sweet when my dad gets creature-obsessed (all images of animals and babies are welcome in our text thread), and 3. My dad is a Jungian Dream Analyst and is constantly blowing my mind with interpretations and observations of the symbols and synchronicities of our seemingly mundane world. So a caterpillar? Becoming a butterfly?! In my own backyard?!?! I just couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say about that. There were no more texts that night, but I figured he was just ruminating.
The next day, I returned to the family chat with some headline-worthy news.
The first strand of his cocoon! How beautiful! How weird! I couldn’t wait to watch him transform. And to keep my spellbound father posted on his updates! But when I shuffled out to do my garden rounds the following morning, I noticed that there was no change in our tiny friend. His single strand of “dental floss” was still hanging limply from his side, and I started to worry that his journey may have come to an end. Of course, I immediately texted the only person who would care.
A few hours later, a followup:
Clearly this was hitting him hard. I wandered out into the yard many times in the following days, hoping that something had changed. Maybe the caterpillar had just gotten tired, mid-evolution? We’ve all been there, right? Plus, I was looking to this little guy to provide some deep, meaningful symbolism about my entire life! He couldn’t just DIE on me, could he?! But every time we put on our clogs and shuffled back there, he was just as we left him- still except for his signature strand, blowing ever so gently in the breeze. Jesse and I walked ourselves back off the ledge of metaphors, trying to save ourselves from reading into this message of doom- sometimes you have to try a few times before you’re ready for a change! Sometimes what you think is going to be your big break is actually just a false start! Sometimes a bug? might just be a bug.
This morning we were traipsing around the garden, uncovering new mancala pieces and cigarette butts left by John Wayne (he is a smoker 😞), when I noticed that something was missing. Our caterpillar friend, whose progress I had been monitoring so closely every day for the whole week had just…disappeared. Maybe a bird got him!, I hoped. Maybe it was the blue jay who auspiciously landed by our window on Friday morning, Jesse’s birthday! Then his little life would not have been in vain! He was food, he was fuel, he was a delicious treat for “an omen of good fortune,” according to Birdzilla.com. Who knows. But there was something peaceful about imagining our little bug pal being enveloped once again into nature’s cycle. I texted my dad right away…
He hasn’t responded. Nature is a heartbreaker.
Things I’m Loving
-It’s so hard to choose a water bottle these days, wouldn’t you agree? Like most items that I select in my life, I like for the object to be aesthetically pleasing (beautiful objects make my heart sing, is this so much to ask?), functional, and not be possessed by every single person in my general demographic. The algorithms of marketing are intent on making us all fast-clicking clones, but also it’s hard to pass up a cute option, don’t you see! Anyway, after my kleen kanteen unwittingly squirted my neighbors one too many times on a plane, I caved and bought myself a new owala water bottle. There are two ways to drink (slurp or sip), the colors are fab (I got retro boardwalk!), and it’s literally impossible to send water rocketing across the aisle to wet the people sleeping across from you on a cross-country flight. I give it a 10/10, and you know what if a few other women in my yoga class have the same one, so be it.
-Speaking of objets d’art, when Jesse first moved to LA about a year ago I was in a phone case crisis (aka needed a new one), and he got to witness one of my core personality traits which is called being Highly Selective or Somewhat Difficult. I bought and returned several phone cases that, upon clicking them onto my phone, just didn’t look like me (“this is why I just use a black phone case,” said Jesse, and I said, “shhhh, shh shh no no”), until I was FINALLY graced by a targeted advertisement from The Sprkl Shop. I chose a sparkly phone case in “rainbow,” added custom letters on the back so my phone says “HOWDY” whenever I glance at it (it’s friendly!), and I’ve never looked back. If a black phone case just isn’t cutting it for you….I highly recommend.
-I haven’t always been the biggest fan of hummus- tahini is not my guy- but I’ve been getting into some less tahini-forward options and I’m having the time of my life. Little Sesame makes a nice, smooth hummus option (I’ve only tried their regular flavor, none of the special additions), but my absolute favorite is Majestic Sprouted Hummus SPECIFICALLY in the curry turmeric flavor. It’s delicious and is often sold out at Whole Foods or our local bodega of choice! Snatch it up when you can!!!
-I have a soft spot for antique salt and pepper shakers, but this, as we know, is a dangerous hobby- what’s a girl to do with an abundance of the stuff?! You can only salt and pepper shake so often!! So I recently poked some dried flowers into the holes of a favorite pair, and now they’re sitting on display behind my kitchen sink, making me smile every time I do the dishes. I got this set at the Pasadena Antique Mall, which is a favorite spot to hunt for treasures and/or gifts you intend to give to your friends for their birthdays but like so much that you end up keeping them for yourself. Up to you!
Have a beautiful week, my friends! I’ll see you back here next Sunday, hopefully with more cheerful caterpillar content 🤞🤞
xx Olivia