Open-hearted joys 開開心心 № 67

A weekly series capturing gratitude for the tiny details of my everyday mundane; the 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!

I am so thankful to be at the start of a long weekend for Easter. You might have noticed that I missed last week’s ‘Open-hearted joys’ post; I ended up so rushed off my feet that I decided to prioritise life over Substack and it turned out to be the best possible thing. Lately I’ve definitely been trying to do too many things. As an eldest daughter, it’s hard for me to admit that I can’t do things but, here I am, admitting just that. Like I mentioned in last weekend’s essay, planning in rest and luxuries has been a game-changer for me. But, I’m also looking forward to four days ‘off’ from my usual scheduling and replacing that with four days of relaxed outdoors time, an acupuncture appointment, commemorating Tomb Sweeping Day, and mostly eating chocolate Easter eggs.

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 open-hearted joys, the moments that’ve woven poetry to my days, this week.

一. Finding my wedding dress! My sister and I enjoyed the most joyful day wedding dress-shopping last week, and I found The One. It’s truly made the wedding planning process feel real and now I’m turbo-charged with more bits to sort (bridal accessories – yay!).

二. A long Sunday walk in the woods with my sister and all the dogs. We spotted the season’s first bluebells emerging and made a note to return in a week or more!

三. Making Cantonese soup on Sunday evenings, just like Mum does and how Granny did before her. There’s something so healing about returning to your roots in your thirties.

四. Neon pink sunsets.

五. How my dog loves to fall asleep in my arms every morning after his walk and my first Teams meeting of the day. One-handed typing is the name of the game recently.

六. Getting to recount wedding dress day with all of my friends, especially the ones who’re fellow fiancées and that I get to share fun milestones with!

七. Reorganising my bookshelves.

八. A snug evening writing my book, blue skies hanging outside.

九. How spending a little less time online means that I feel a little more reconnected with myself, my goals and my plans for life lately. I feel a little disconnected from the community, but it’s been so necessary to pull back just a tiny bit and realign things.

十. Treating myself to a new gym matching set after a year. I don’t buy much anymore, yet this feels like an investment into myself. And, I can’t be doing the laundry this much anymore 😂

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Share a joy from your week in the comments, and I’ll see you again next Friday.