I read a Tweet earlier this month, by Laura Steven. It read: “Small joy and big joy are the same thing. That’s the secret.” And it’s true! I’m no happier sitting at home eating a square of chocolate than I am out at a restaurant having a lava cake. You don’t really feel more joy when you’re doing things that make you happy.
So, this week, I’ve been seeking out the small joys.
Ruby Tandoh wrote an amazing article called Good Food Things, where she outlines all of the best things about eating food. None of the things on the list required fine dining, or special fish knives, but instead were, “the snap of fridge-cold chocolate under a knife,” or “emptying the smashed bits of crisp at the bottom of the bag into your mouth.” I’ve been thinking about all of my Good Food Things — the super-sweet third of tea at the bottom of the cup where the sugar has settled, tearing orange segments in half so that they look like tentacles, the molten pool of butter in the middle of a slice of toast. What are your Good Food Things?
This week, I’m reading ‘We Have Always Lived In The Castle’ by Shirley Jackson. Now that it is October, and officially Spooky SeasonTM, it’s time to do all of my autumnal rituals, even though I live in the tropics. Listening to scary podcasts that are free to listen on Spotify, online, and on Podcast apps is a big one — my favourites are TheMagnusArchive, where you follow the adventures of archivists at a supernatural research agency following their leads a bit too far, or TheBlackTapes, where a This American Life researcher gets a bit too involved trying to understand the world of paranormal investigators. If you’re more into watching things, then there are many animated horror stories on YouTube. My sister’s favourite is this one.
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