Open-hearted joys 開開心心 № 29
Capturing the tiny details of my everyday mundane and the small moments that weave poetry to my days.
Sundaze Book Café is the home of everyday magic, joyful living and conversations likely to be had over a hot drink with a friend in your favourite café, capturing the syrup-slow feel and glow of a Sunday. I’m Michelle, and I’ll be your host today.
Happy Friday, my loves!
It’s been a slow-moving week in my corner of the world. Laundry loads, flowers to arrange, quiet reading evenings… I’ve loved it. During weeks like these, it isn’t hard to seek out the small joys at all – my little life is full of them! Recently, I’ve had a flurry of messages from the community telling me that they too now try to look for the little joys in their life. For me, it’s an essential practice, especially with whatever is going on in the world at the moment. Sure, writing down how much I loved watching a bird flit in and out of the shrubs won’t change the world, but it does help to ease the anxiety, sadness and worry a little. And, it keeps me grateful and grounded, too. Today, why not try to pick out one good thing? (It’s Friday!!)
There’s a lot to be said for appreciating the smaller, not necessarily finer, details of the everyday mundane. Here’s to another list of petite, open-hearted joys, the moments that’ve brought and woven poetry to my days, this week.
一. Lighting a fresh Duvet Daze Soy Candle on a Monday morning. I’m still so proud of this airy, laundry-clean scent we created at & Chai. Perfecting an olfactory creation is easily one of my biggest joys and I can’t wait to work on our *whispers* autumn collection.
二. The way even clouds slowly drift away in time.
三. A cosy evening on the sofa with my Nintendo Switch and Atelier Ryza 3. I last picked this RPG up in 2023 and now it feels like I never stopped! I’m so happy that I’ve the headspace for this game, because I adore the series so much. In fact, I can barely recall why I stopped playing it in the first place?! Maybe I’ve finally healed from the trauma of that summer! Love that for me!
四. The palpable excitement for our Cotswolds weekend away, this weekend! It’s my fiancé’s birthday, and I’m whisking him away to a gorgeous cottage and we’ve booked in plenty of country pub lunches and planned many a field ramble. I can’t wait!
五. When dinner just tastes really good.
六. Revising an essay for the fourth time and it finally reading well. (Now watch it tank on Substack in a couple of weeks!)
七. Feeling busy and fulfilled at work.
八. A night in my library room, catching up on my reading journal and getting my nose stuck in a good book – I’m reading Food Person by Adam Roberts, which is surprisingly funny and a great read for summer.
九. How good my brain feels after a Reformer Pilates class.
十. The space and time to breathe deeply and just ‘think’.
Share a joy from your week in the comments, and I’ll see you again next Friday.
As soon as your open-hearted joys newsletter landed in my inbox, I thought oh, I always look forward to these. Even though I try to take stock of the small joys daily, your newsletter always nudges me to pause and reflect a little more deeply on the week just passed. Reading your intro made me smile, knowing I’m not the only one looking forward to it and treating it like a quiet weekly ritual. So I suppose this is just a little communal thank you for bringing reflection and light into our inboxes each week ❤️
I am so with you on pulling things back and taking time to count the small joys (as you know!) — even if there are easier weeks to find these things than others, they’re grounding and perspective-giving no matter what. Have the loveliest weekend! That sounds like my ideal weekend! And yes to clouds— there’s also something to be said about the way the clouds make you feel small in the universe but still very much part of it. Have a lovely weekend!xxx