Hello dear reader!
Welcome to another issue of this newsletter.
I’ll be honest: I haven’t posted in three weeks. That’s not great for consistency, and I know it. But I needed the space. A weekend away with friends, family visiting Amsterdam, then a week in Sicily with the family. Life has been busy. Happily busy. Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop, enjoy, and let the writing wait.
So I did. And now I’m back, and I want to talk about rest.
Resting as quiet resistance
We live in a world that keeps pushing us toward the next thing. The next promotion, the next project, the next milestone. Always productive, always moving. In that context, choosing to rest is a quiet act of resistance. A way to take back control of your time. To pause, think, evaluate. And then decide how to continue.
Rest doesn’t have to mean a holiday or a full weekend off. It can be ten or twenty minutes in the middle of the day. Reading something. Sitting outside. Doing nothing in particular while the weather is good. That counts.
For me, this creative rest helped me clear my mind and see things in perspective. To focus on what I actually want to prioritize: the photography, the writing, the people in front of me. Not just what’s shouting louder demanding attention.
Urban design and the art of sitting still
While walking around Noto, in Sicily, I saw three guys at a bench. Two standing, one sitting. They weren’t doing much — just watching life pass by. The bench was in exactly the right place: positioned to encourage people to sit, observe, stay for a while. It wasn’t an accident. It was urban design doing its job.
I’ve written before about how benches and street furniture blur public and private space in Amsterdam; I guess, my architecture/urban past and street photography have taught me to notice these things. Sicily deepened that idea for me. Good urban design invites rest. It is a fundamental part of what some call placemaking. Benches, chairs, small plazas: these spaces treat the city as a destination, not just a route from A to B.
And there’s a collective benefit too. When people rest in public space, there are more eyes on the street. More presence. The city becomes a place to stay, not just to pass through. Those three guys on the bench in Noto were making the street safer and more alive just by being there.
That’s it for today. If life has been pushing you nonstop, maybe the next bench you see is worth stopping for. Sit down. Watch the street for a bit. It helps more than you think.
Luis
