L'art de vivre // Eternity body

L'art de vivre // Eternity body

By Meredith Ruby

As I write, I return to this corporeal form; a source of artistry, a fortress where alchemy conspires, where creativity is conceived. I write as an extension of being, aware of my sensory experience.

The body: an echo chamber of poetic prayers, leading me to commune through paper and pen.

I often find I create best, and I write most devotionally, when my physical form is adorned and tended to; when I care for my vessel, creative energy flows through seamlessly. If I am beautiful in my body, I feel more attuned to the subtleties of life.

The French philosophy l'art de vivre translates to the art of living, and suggests a beautiful life requires the enjoyment of simple pleasures. This philosophy is an invitation to live at a slower pace, to marinate in the spaciousness of our days and embrace pause.

Through this approach to life, writing becomes a creative craft founded in mindfulness, a sensory practice, and a natural extension of our being. Different from an agenda, l'art de vivre serves as a reminder to seep into writing as a ritual, as a way of translating our stream of consciousness. In this way, it embraces the beauty in both the mundane and wild — it doesn't take or ask much of you; rather, it points you back to what already occurs in the backdrop of life. It is an entry point to allow inspiration to guide
you.

Integrating l'art de vivre:

1. If the body were an altar piece, consider how you may consecrate your site of transmutation.

Embellish your life with what inspires beauty in and around you; be it crisp fabrics or lived-in lace detail. I love to curate my writing ritual with whimsical clothing, pieces that leave me feeling refreshed and connected to my north stars: great writers who paved the path for women in literacy.

2. Let beauty guide you as a reflection of love.

When you invite yourself to notice beauty around you, you start to slowly recognize this as an extension of love and care eternally unfolding. Beauty that naturally conspires is infinite, but beauty curated by the hands of another is a walkway to our collective tenderness, and a reminder to live life beautifully.

3. Shamelessly indulge.

Allow yourself to relish the sensory delight of beauty and comfort. Invite others to meet you there. This is the art of living; this is l'art de vivre. Put on your favorite soft linen dress, your silky scarf, your ballet slippers, and fall fully into a romantic moment.
Beauty isn't always artifice; it's a quiet expression that equates to freedom. Beauty lies in the art of living, life as a creative act. A beautiful life unfolds in surrendering to what is; to the unrefined natural. Beauty flows from our fingertips, from this skeletal form made of miracles, into being.

I feel beautiful in between soft linens, my skin contacting natural fibers. A felt experience unfurls with permission to rest in simplicity. I breathe deeper in beauty, in comfort, and I create more wholly when tended to, with intention and care. When I feel beautiful, that same beauty ripples outward, reflecting in myriads of charm. Language then becomes an extension of my innermost raw expressions.

L'art de vivre is a reminder to realize that artistry begins in the most gentle expressions of self-care, be it in tending to beauty as an extension of love, through engaging in the presentmoment, or by leaning into simple pleasures.