tiny little joys
My sister taught me about tiny little joys.
When we send each other audiobooks (voice notes), I love hearing what’s lighting her up. Usually, it’s things like: a new crookie, someone being kind, or fondly remembering how many clothes I’ve “borrowed” from her closet.
Her joys brighten my days too, so I wanted to share a few of my own, with you. Because we all certainly could use a little extra light:
△ HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people are doing things to counterbalance everything that’s happening right now. That is my Big Beautiful Joy.
△ Ironically, I’m writing for an organization that supports people on Medicaid. I literally started this one week before the Big Beautiful Buttfuck passed (pardon my French). I get to write directly to people on Medicaid, their doctors, their clinics, and anyone that’s part of the healthcare system who is freaking out right now, and rightfully so. This feels like the right thing to be doing, right now.
△ Fiona Apple was/is my role model. Sidenote: I’d love to change this caption to listening to a creepy man:
△ I love this author and everything she writes, but especially this:
△ For the first time ever, using DNA from three different people, babies are being born without deadly inherited diseases. They take a sperm, an egg, plus another egg, and it works!
△ Yesterday, in honor of John Lewis and getting in good trouble, people all over the country protested. Even people in my little town of 8,000. My two favorite signs: “They’re eating the checks, they’re eating the balances!” and of course, a bell hooks quote: “If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice.”
△ This tidbit from
: The way A.J Muste stood outside the white house with a lit candle many nights during the Vietnam War and, when a reporter asked him, “Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White House with a candle?” he replied: “Oh I don’t do this to change the country. I do this so the country won’t change me.”△ Whenever I visit my main little joys (nieces and nephew), the only word I know how to say is YES. Can we go shopping? Can we order food from 4 different restaurants? Can I have your phone and disappear with it for a few hours? Yes, yes, and definitely, yes. To my utter delight, I’ve recently found some never-before-seen footage that has brought so much joy to my heart. Here’s one tiny preview:
△ Beautiful writing like this: The One Where We Are Already Professionals
△ My garden is really popping off this year (thank you, Mother Earth). I have enough zucchini to feed a few small villages. And kale too. Neither of which I particularly love, but it’s growing! Abundantly! I’ve also successfully grown 10 strawberries so far, and my cucumbers are coming along. In terms of flowers, I did chaos gardening, a.k.a. just throwing seeds everywhere. I have lots of Icelandic and Afghan poppies, cosmos, marigolds, a bunch of flowers I can’t identify, and of course, roses. But my shallots are shit, my carrots are not interested in growing, and my leeks are hanging on for dear life. Also, my lettuce is thriving a little too much, bolting towards the sun, along with my dill and any herb I plant. Regardless, every morning I get to see what’s new in my favorite little meditative spot, with no headlines or notifications. Just me and my hands in the dirt, trying to nurse everything to life.
△ The Buccaneers is back with season 2 ! Also, I watched Too Much and once I accepted the guy from White Lotus was not that character anymore, I liked it. My sweet sister calling to warn me about a dog storyline, which I’d already seen and forgot to warn her about (she loved my dog and my dog loved her more than me, an issue for my therapist). I said thank you, I’m so sorry I didn’t think to warn you, then revealed the ending to her too, even though she hadn’t finished the series yet. She’s just the best.
△ I went to my local Buddhist temple on Sunday. Every year, they do a teriyaki BBQ and it’s the BEST. The potato salad is to die for. They offered samples of their teriyaki sauce, and I tried to be good and only take one, but in my heart, I wanted the whole basket. Good terikyaki sauce = tiny little joy.
△ Also, at this same BBQ, I met the cutest couple in the world: Lou and Joan. They’ve been married for one year, are so in love, and so sweet to each other. And they’re both 78 years old. I fangirled over them because they were just so darn CUTE. AND they both had lost their previous spouses, so I could see how they loved, respected, and appreciated each other, all the more. Old/young love is my new obsession.
△ I’m currently writing two books for other people and one for myself. All three are exciting and I can’t wait to share them when they’re ready.
△ I recently learned about intuitive vs. instrumental grieving. Some of us are intuitive grievers. Meaning we stop, we feel, we let it all come out, letting the emotions move through us. Others of us (ahem) are instrumental grievers. We snap into action. We become doers: cleaning, planning, doing 1 million things, as an outlet for that energy. This explains my entire existence.
△ Facts like this: How 40 Million Immigrants Create Housing Wealth and Stabilize Communities
△ I’ve been walking triple my usual amount and I love it. I’m becoming one with nature and feel like Snow White, because I’m also surrounded by animals on my walks. Nearly every day, I see this deer family, two fawns and their mom and dad, wandering around my neighborhood. I now feel like part of their family too and would like to adopt them into my yard. I feel like they know this, because I often find them sitting under the apple tree, eating the blackberries, and sometimes, my strawberries (hence why I’ve only enjoyed 10, but they’ve enjoyed like 95 so in the words of Mel Robbins, let them).
△ The work that Sonoma County Secure Families is doing.
△ In honor of a great human who died too soon:
△ I saw The Life of Chuck for the second time and there’s nothing I love more than a movie with a poem in it. Especially Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. You have to go see the movie (twice, preferably) but this line is my favorite: “I am wonderful, I deserve to be wonderful, and I contain multitudes.”
△ Books that have brought me joy so far this year:
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (fiction that’s non-fiction)
The Spark of my Womb by B. Coil (recommended to every human I know)
The Bombshell by Darrow Farr (still thinking about it, just loved it)
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (about the plague, SO well-written, sad too)
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner (loved)
Isola by Allegra Goodman (also loved)
Good Girl by Aria Aber (5 stars)
Go As a River by Shelley Read (another one I recommend to everyone)
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe (weird, quirky, I liked it)
△ And finally, this:
Love this list of joys! 🌈