soft prep

There are certain afternoons that feel like exhale. The light is soft, the house is clean, the playlist is on. I’m barefoot on the hardwood floors, wearing a Tracy Reese dress I’ve had for years and still love, placing flowers in the guest bedroom before a friend arrives for the weekend.

These are the quiet rhythms that make me feel most at home — pulling fruit for a board, tucking a bottle of wine into the cooler, smoothing linens. It’s not performative. It’s not for Instagram. It’s for me.

Because I’m in a place now where surrounding myself with beauty isn’t an indulgence, it’s a grounding. Something to return to. I used to think ease was something you stumbled into after a promotion, or a relationship, or a series of lucky breaks. But it’s quieter than that.

It’s afternoons like this — flowers from the market in my hand, music in the background, moving through a home I’ve made my own — where I feel it most. A life that mirrors who I’ve become. A woman in her thirties, rooted and still unfolding, coming home to herself.

-L