It is in Autumn + Winter when all things return inward for rest so that they may return again, full of life come Spring.  It is this time when the plants draw their energy beneath the Earth’s surface, deep into their roots to gather nourishment, laying dormant until the time is right once more to burst forth in an exhuberant expression of new life.  So too, we humans must take this time to become quiet within ourselves, to rest, to hibernate, and to go underground in whatever ways our life allows.  For some this may mean a long Winter, shrouded in snow, spent in a rhythm of chopping wood, stirring soups, and reading by the woodstove, for others it may look more like donning a favorite sweater, going to bed an hour earlier, and greeting the day with a cup of warm tea.  Whatever quieting and slowing your world allows for, make space for it wholeheartedly.

“This is a song, which I haven’t sung for many, many years,”

said Scottish born folk singer and guitarist Bert Jansch before launching into the opening notes of one of his most celebrated songs, “Needle of Death”. We were somewhere in Northern CA, in the late spring of 2010.  That song, which acutely reflected the struggles of heroin addiction was released years before Neil Young’s “Needle and the Damage Done” swept the nation, and that night Young was also in the audience. He’s called Bert “the best acoustic guitarist”, saying, “he’s my favorite anyway. That first record of his [1965] is epic. It came from England, and I was especially taken by Needle of Death, such a beautiful and angry song…”

As the cool air of Autumn swirls around us on Earth, we are reminded of the Sun and the light giving gifts this element offers us. In Andean cosmology Father Sun, known in Quecha as Tayta Inti, is a masculine spirit carrying the qualities of the element Fire. According to the Q’ero people of the Sacred Valley in Peru, Tayta Inti gave rainbows to the beings of Earth to remind them of his creation of the world and how the rainbow is many colors yet forms a single bridge from the Earth to the Sky. When I first heard this story I began to wonder, “How can I as a human being connect to the Sky and the light energy it carries – of the Sun, the Moon, the Stars?”

As Karl Lagerfeld says, “You don’t have to be French to be Parisian”, and four accomplished French women are here to help with their book How to be Parisian Wherever You Are – Love, Style and Bad Habits, by waxing cheekily on all of the above–with grace, humor and intellect.

The multi-talented authors–Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas — have been close friends for ages, working and killing it in the realms of  music, film, fashion and publishing.

We are big fans of LA-based cold-pressed juicery Moon Juice– now with locations in Venice, Silverlake and the Ace Hotel in DTLA. Owner and mastermind Amanda Chantal Bacon crafts recipes for nurturing and nourishing from within with the most beautiful of ingredients.

Here she shares her recipe for WARM EARTHY ROSE TONIC

Berlin boasts an amazing number and diversity of mutually cultivated space that are used as common or joint land: intercultural gardens, community gardens, self-harvest gardens, guerrilla gardens, school gardens, rooftop gardens and – the smallest of them all – planted tree bases. They pose and answer key questions relating to urban society, in particular with respect to social, cultural and biological diversity, participative urban design, city ecology, supply and consumption, education, movement, nutrition and health, solidarity, integration and civic engagement.