Natalie Audelo

Vorfreude: the joy of anticipation

Vorfreude means “the pleasure of anticipation.” I learned it from Jono Hey’s excellent Sketchplanations newsletter. “The magic of vorfreude lies in how it stretches out the pleasure of any upcoming event or experience,” writes Jono. “Once I hit 'Confirm' to book a trip, it kicks off joy for months whenever I think... See more

This reorientation toward meaning over materialism is beginning to take root elsewhere, too.

Every corporation in America is poisoning our food, water and air, and every advertisement is telling me to make an individual lifestyle change and either buy an expensive filter for The Poison or buy this new thing that’s Not Poison. (It will turn out to be Poison.)

– @servingcapreal

“I think this is like a widespread public health issue, and the way to start solving it is has got to be part of a bigger collective political movement, really, focusing on solving the inequality of beauty versus the insecurity of beauty, and once the inequality of beauty is addressed, the insecurity will naturally follow that pattern”

The moat of low status is one of my favorite concepts, courtesy of my husband Sasha. The idea is that making changes in your life, especially when learning new skill sets, requires you to cross a moat of low status, a period of time where you are actually bad at the thing or fail to know things that are obvious to other people.

If you are also feeling that sometimes, it’s all just too much — too much external and internal noise and doing and happening, I invite you to join me in posing this question: Dear Love, how can I find shelter from the storm? And as always, if that doesn’t feel quite right, you can instead pose the question that has never yet failed me: Dear Love,... See more

I’ve spent my whole life finishing the sentence: It’s going to be ____________. Sometimes I’d say great, because I’d damn well make sure of it. Or I’d say really dangerous , because I had convinced myself that catastrophizing or dress rehearsing tragedy helped me feel a sense of preparedness. Now, all I can do is tell you, Here’s what we’re doing,... See more