Week 2 - Whimsical Enchantment

Across the street from The Anti Mall in Costa Mesa, there lies a little coffee shop called Milk and Honey.  The outdoor area is a small encapsulated space, shaded by overgrown branches and draping greenery.  The natural light that seeps into this outdoor alcove appears to glow with a beam of supernatural radiance, while the surrounding whimsical canopy brings to mind an enchanted garden.  For those reading or studying, Milk and Honey adds subtle, superficial light in the style of hanging lanterns.  The contrasting natural and superficial light in this space creates a gentle radiance that feels very much 'alive', creating a sensed movement throughout the 'house-of-shade' it inhabits, and warranting the uncanny anticipation of something magical to occur.  I expect that a space like this transforms the experience of the ordinary (i.e.: coffee with an old friend) into something extraordinary with an air of romanticism (i.e.: the old friends decide finally to share their most guarded secrets).  Outdoor light creating both the sky backdrop and the shadowed reflections of nature's overgrowth, accentuated with a few small, intentionally placed yellow beams [hanging lanterns] beacons my mind to think of something supernatural; not only something unreal or mythical like in The Secret Garden, but also something palpable and experiential to human beings.  This something might be described as "chemistry" or "spark" in a romantic connection, especially vulnerable to invocation in a setting like this one.  "Epiphany" for the entrepreneur or "revelation" for the faith seeker might also be nurtured here.  Whether it be "deep and meaningful" emerging in the categorical topics among friends or "forever treasured" in the moments spent by a mother with her child, I feel as though Milk and Honey's indoor/outdoor atmosphere has the potential to light aglow and/or further illuminate some undiscovered flames in the hearts of its dwellers, catalyzing something covertly miraculous, something peculiarly memorable, something undeniably "other" within its whimsical den ~ a den very much alive with a warm-hearted, enchanting luminosity.