<![CDATA[Small Is In The Large]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!utiQ!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d22929c-560b-48ce-80f5-ea6b7a92e6d2_600x600.pngSmall Is In The Largehttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.comSubstackWed, 02 Sep 2026 20:30:15 GMT<![CDATA[Sunset Magic]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/sunset-magichttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/sunset-magicTue, 01 Sep 2026 21:31:59 GMTWhatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. —Goethe

Sunset// Lokrum

Sending end of summer wishes of magic and…

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Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Reminders From Oz!]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/reminders-from-ozhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/reminders-from-ozTue, 25 Aug 2026 14:21:39 GMTI walked by this quote from The Wizard of Oz that stopped me in my tracks…

Wishing you all things good,

💫

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[My Praying Frog]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/my-praying-froghttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/my-praying-frogTue, 18 Aug 2026 17:48:39 GMTThis little guy lives in my garden.

Each time I walk by him, I am reminded to pause, breathe, and be still.

Praying Frog Greeting The Morning Sun

Be still and know that all is well.

Be still and let things be.

Be still and be.

~|~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Summer Blues]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/summer-blues-1adhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/summer-blues-1adTue, 11 Aug 2026 13:22:25 GMTIt’s that time during the summer when mild panic begins to seep in.

It’s a sense of time slipping away, of trying to stop the inevitable, of wondering: Where did the summer go?

Blue Banjo/ Tafa

It went the way it went.

As it always does.

Gifting us with long sunshine

About to scamper off to greet the Fall.

~|~

Here’s to basking in these last few precious days of summer sun.

~|~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Two Roosters?]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/two-roostershttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/two-roostersTue, 04 Aug 2026 23:49:41 GMTI love imagining stories out of the most mundane things.

Take this post card, for example, which I came across while visiting a vineyard in France.

I brought it home and now use it as a bookmark.

There are so many stories here.

What do you see?

Carrots, roosters, pastries?

An afternoon tea filled with strawberry tarts?

Or two chickens out on a date?

~/~

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Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[The Altar]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/the-altarhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/the-altarTue, 28 Jul 2026 13:57:21 GMT
Note to Self...Mon| 12.14.20

A small reminder for today…

~\~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[A Monk's Guide ]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/a-monks-guidehttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/a-monks-guideTue, 21 Jul 2026 20:35:20 GMTWhen I’m really overwhelmed by something, I either cook, write, or clean.

I won’t bombard you with the details, but suffice it to say that I’ve been doing a lot of all three lately.

Earlier this summer, I came across this book.

It’s chock full of simple nuggets of wisdom, most of which extend beyond the act of cleaning.

Here are my top five:

  • *the most important thing about washing dishes is not to allow them to pile up

    *when you are polishing the floor, you are polishing the mind

  • *designate shikunichi days - days for mending items and performing maintenance

  • *you must survey the overall situation before establishing what to do

  • *Zengosaidan- put all your efforts into each day…Don’t put it off until tomorrow

I returned to this book today, and what struck me was how each thing that we do, no matter how mundane, can be a meditation.

A meditation on the present.

A meditation on what’s provided.

A meditation on the right-ordering that we all want in our lives.

~|~

Who knew that cleaning was a small is in the large!

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

]]><![CDATA[Thoughts From The Warpland]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/thoughts-from-the-warplandhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/thoughts-from-the-warplandTue, 14 Jul 2026 20:49:00 GMTConduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.

—Gwendolyn Brooks, The Second Sermon on the Warpland

Small line, immense truth.

Small is in the large.

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara1

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I know last week I promised to write about something else; but, it’s been a day…

]]><![CDATA[Who? Whom?]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/who-whomhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/who-whomTue, 07 Jul 2026 13:16:57 GMTThis is one of my favorites, from the wall of my doctor’s office.

Beyond a question of grammar, it is perhaps the most profound question you can ask yourself:

Who?
Who?

As T.A. Barron notes in his captivating new book Naming Nature-A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities for Word Lovers (more on this next week)— “Who are you, who?”

The next time you hear an owl hoot out this question, just pause for a minute and try to answer.

Who are you?
Who?
What do you want?
What do you long for?
What do you desire?

/./

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Pick Up Your Phone]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/pick-up-your-phonehttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/pick-up-your-phoneTue, 30 Jun 2026 21:47:16 GMTDJ please, pick up your phone
I’m on the request line

…

Come on
Is it worth it? Let me work it
I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it

—Missy Elliott (Work It)

Q1: If you were on THE request line, who would you call and what would you ask for?

Q2: What “thang” would you put down?

Q3: Which of the above phones would you use?

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

— Margaret Young

Last night was a full moon.

A time to allow things to fall away, compost, and reset.

Part of my reset is to avoid living life backwards.

How about you?

What’s worth it to you?

And where might there be opportunity to “flip it and reverse it”?1

`|~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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DJ please, pick up your phone
I’m on the request line…Missy Elliott - Work It [Official Music Video]

]]><![CDATA[Blind Faith]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/blind-faithhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/blind-faithTue, 23 Jun 2026 15:33:51 GMTA few days ago, I noticed that a spider had decided to take up residence outside of my front door. As I type, I’m sure he is quietly weaving his web.

spider web on brown tree branch
Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash

My initial reaction was mild annoyance, but then it occurred to me that there were no flies buzzing around (which for whatever reason seems to be a feature of summer in parts of Brooklyn). My attitude towards the spider shifted from annoyance to wild gratitude.

I thought about an exhibition I saw at The Shed, four years ago —Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s)- that featured a gallery exhibition and a sensory experience on a 95ft diameter suspended installation (Free the Air: How to hear the universe in a spider/web). As I lay suspended on that simulated spider web, I remember learning that most spiders have poor eyesight, instead relying on vibration, touch, and taste to navigate their environment.

Tomás Saraceno: Particular Matter(s)/ The Shed/ 2022

I remember thinking then that it was a kind of blind faith.

Sensing, trusting, and using their “spidey senses” to weave their web.

Now, as I stood watching my new resident spider, the memory of that day came back.

A small powerful reminder on trusting your instinct.

On weaving forward even in times of uncertainty.

Of knowing that you’re held by a larger whole.

\|/

In other words, an unexpected small is in the large.

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Some Summer Math!]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/some-summer-mathhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/some-summer-mathTue, 16 Jun 2026 13:07:09 GMTOn a group text, a friend described how she made the hard choice to say no to a project that she thought she really wanted. Given everything she was juggling, the timing wasn’t right. Amazingly, the minute she said “No,” all these other opportunities came rushing in.

Another friend responded with this simple reflection:

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“Addition by subtraction…”

~|~

Talk about a small is in the large!

The energy of summer fits perfectly with this ethos of less is more.

Beach Day/ Donostia, San Sebastian

What can we put down, what can we say “No” to, what can we give a rest that will make space for the brilliance of a larger whole?

Where is your addition by subtraction?

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Some Strange Pull]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/let-yourselfhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/let-yourselfTue, 09 Jun 2026 16:01:29 GMTLet yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray. — Rumi

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Woman In White Eats Coconut]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/woman-in-white-eats-coconuthttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/woman-in-white-eats-coconutTue, 02 Jun 2026 16:50:17 GMTFive years ago the Brooklyn Museum presented a retrospective of the work of Lorraine O’Grady, a key figure in conceptual, feminist, and performance art.

Lorraine O’Grady (American, born 1934). Rivers, First Draft: The Woman in White eats coconut and looks away from the action, 1982/2015. Digital chromogenic print from Kodachrome 35mm slides in 48 parts, 16 × 20 in. (40.64 × 50.8 cm). Edition of 8 plus 2 artist’s proofs. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © Lorraine O’Grady / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

O’Grady’s work explores themes of hybridity, multiplicity, cultural inheritance, and the legacies of her Caribbean, European, African, and American heritage.

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Her work is powerful, stirring something deep within.

Her titles, like the one above, invite contemplation.

But the thing that has made a lasting imprint is what O’Grady calls “both/and” rather than “either/or.”

Either/or locks you in to a binary choice.

Both/and “challeng[es] the fixed positions of self and other, here and there, now and then, all while reflecting on the poignancy of lives lived within dualistic frameworks.”1

~\~

It’s a small switch, a small is in the large, that opens you up to a more inclusive whole.

Here’s to wearing white while eating coconuts…

…because after all, both things can be true.

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/lorraine_ogrady

]]><![CDATA[Nothing Gold Can Stay]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/nothing-gold-can-stayhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/nothing-gold-can-stayTue, 26 May 2026 23:49:06 GMTI was out running when this documentary photography project caught my eye.

Nothing Gold Can Stay it declared.

Borrowing its title from a Robert Frost poem, the installation at Brooklyn Bridge Park examines the impact of economic globalization on small towns and former industrial cities across America.

The photographs are breathtaking.

I circled around them several times.

The accompanying description offered this summation:

“…the work reflects on impermanence while seeking quiet beauty in everyday moments. Within these altered landscapes lie not only scars, but the possibility of renewal — an invitation to see dignity and persistence where decline is too often assumed.”

For me, it was a small is in the large.

A reminder that there is beauty and diginity no matter the landscape.

~|~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[In the stream]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/in-the-streamhttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/in-the-streamTue, 19 May 2026 18:18:23 GMT“Sometimes the desire to be lost again, as long ago, comes over me like a vapor. With growth into adulthood, responsibilities claimed me, so many heavy coats. I didn’t choose them, I don’t fault them, but it took time to reject them. Now in the spring I kneel, I put my face into the packets of violets, the dampness, the freshness, the sense of ever-ness. Something is wrong, I know it, if I don’t keep my attention on eternity. May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful. May I stay forever in the stream. May I look down upon the windflower and the bull thistle and the coreopsis with the greatest respect.”— Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays

Waterfall| West Cornwall, CT

As we settle into spring, here’s to looking down upon windflower, bull thistle, and coreopsis (with respect!).

And as we ease into summer, here’s to taking off our heavy coats and staying forever in the stream.

~|~

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[RE-membrance]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/re-membrancehttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/re-membranceTue, 12 May 2026 13:57:57 GMTOne of my favorite games as a child was “Memory.”

You know the one where you shuffle the cards, place them face down, and then the aim of the game is to remember where each card is, and to collect more matching pairs than your opponent(s)?

For whatever reason, though, as much as I loved this game, I could not get the name right. I called it REMEMBRANCE.

Me (only child): Want to play Remembrance?

My Mom: That is not the name of the game, but sure, let’s play.

I guess, I’m thinking of this game today, because of a conversation I had last night with a dear friend,1 about us all knowing why we’re here, but the trick is to remember.

Remembrance: is the act of remembering…the ability to remember

And to re-member is to re-constitute,

to re-assemble,

or as Chickasaw poet and author, Linda Hogan puts it,

to “make whole our broken off pieces of self…”.

~|~

Here’s to (RE)membering and recollecting the cards that are ours.

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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Thxoxxx B.O. Truly profound and deeply felt.

]]><![CDATA[The Miracle Is...]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/the-miracle-ishttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/the-miracle-isTue, 05 May 2026 14:44:39 GMT“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now… It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice.”—Thich Nhat Hanh

Early Morning Hike With Friends (thanks NM for capturing this moment…a “hands length away” :))

~|~

As the days become a little warmer and a little brighter, here’s to taking the time to appreciate the peace and beauty available now.

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Every city needs its dreams]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/every-city-needs-its-dreamshttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/every-city-needs-its-dreamsTue, 28 Apr 2026 18:52:01 GMTJust as an individual person
dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces
which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events so too a city needs its dreams.

–Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language

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This annual puppet parade through the streets of Brooklyn Heights always feels like renewal.

It’s a small pause…

a reminder to dream beyond the confines of the ordinary.

~|~

To collectively tap into the wild and brilliant chaos of the larger whole.

~|~

Wishing you fantastic happenings and all things good,

Tamara

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]]><![CDATA[Red Door Blossoms]]>https://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/red-door-blossomshttps://tamarabelinfanti.substack.com/p/red-door-blossomsTue, 21 Apr 2026 22:18:23 GMTpink blossoms beckon
cherry smiles red door awaits
tip toe enter peace

Wishing you all things good,

Tamara

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