A painting at the Norton Museum made me realize how uncomfortable I’ve become with doing nothing at all. Danielle Mckinney’s women understand something I’m still learning: that authority over your own time may be the greatest luxury there is.
Author Archives: ialerte
I’ll Always Be a Teenage Girl
A red couch in New York. The friendships that built me. A personal essay on staying open, staying curious, and the girl who still lives inside.
Santorini, at the Pace of Light
Santorini, reveals itself slowly, in light that lingers, in days that unfold without urgency, and in a rhythm that quietly reshapes how you move through time.
Where You Can Be Seen, But Not Held
Travel offers visibility—moments captured, documented, remembered. But not every experience moves with the same ease. In some places, you are seen everywhere, and still not fully accounted for.
Istanbul, You Owe Me Nothing
Istanbul, you owe me nothing. I arrived expecting something smaller, something older, something more burdened by its own history. What I found instead was a city that had outgrown every story I had been told about it. The scale stopped me first — a skyline that kept going, a waterway that divides not just landContinue reading “Istanbul, You Owe Me Nothing”
The Things That Do Not Rush
Slowing down is not a mindset – it’s a rhythm you have to relearn.
The Shape of Community
Community was not something we searched for – it was something we lived inside. This is a reflection on what happens when that disappears, and what we begin searching for in its place.
The Miami Most Visitors Miss
Miami reveals itself differently when you move through it slowly—at an hour when the light softens and the city begins to feel like your own.
The Restaurants That Feel Like Home
Most people eat Miami the way they visit it — quickly. Reservations booked weeks in advance. A checklist of hotspots. Photos taken before the first bite. I used to eat it that way too. When we came down from Haiti each summer, Miami tasted like indulgence. Fast food we didn’t have back home. Cinnamon rollsContinue reading “The Restaurants That Feel Like Home “
Where We Chose to Celebrate Us
A Trio Birthday ritual, born during Covid, brought us to Mexico City—where we ate slowly, repeated what we loved, and chose presence over spectacle.