Snippets

Reminders for All the Days

Photo by Evelyn Clement on Unsplash

I started several new posts for mid-August. Surely, some of them will show up in September, October….But the dog days call for something a little lighter, and I have found myself continually coming back to a collection of magical-adjacent aphorisms, personal buzz words, and memories.

These snippets, picked up along the way from friends, acquaintances, and assorted bearers of wisdom carry me into and out of lots of my days.

Perhaps they’ll be food or fodder for yours too - and let us know some of your own!

Let’s start with:

• Shower-time - a rarely long, but frequently impactful collection of minutes. Something about the confines of a stall, the closed-in, behind-the-curtain feelings of a small, warm space allows ideas to pour out and rise like steam. Ages ago, a colleague defined this concept for me. She said no to an opportunity, noting the sheer number of thoughts already jockeying for a piece of those precious, more or less silent shower moments meant her plate was full. I have learned to recognize shower-time as pouring-out time - for creativity, for prayer, for angst, for problem-solving. It’s not rigid or linear or logical, but it has some kind of magic.

• A well-made bed - in different seasons this has meant different things - adulting, displaying style, mastery of a morning routine in light of a new commute, new baby, or other change in rhythm. I once heard a successful business leader’s StoryCorps reflection on this idea. An early mentor had told him to do small things well as a bridge to accomplishing bigger things. Taking care in the act of making his bed each morning conveyed discipline, but also assurance, confidence, pleasure in a tiny triumph, the hope of more. Even on days when I let it go, I remember the magic of the well-made bed and the power of good starts.

• Toweling robes - I confess to loving British fiction just more (Richard Osman, Sophie Kinsella, Agatha Christie; um, Austen, Bronte, Wodehouse…Shakespeare?) And Ireland counts too, Marian Keyes , Sally Rooney, and Tana French!) It doesn’t require fantasy world-building to feel the resonance of a place apart in a story set across the pond or voiced by someone whose English is just a little plummy-er. Recently, I picked up on the term “toweling robe.” The meaning is pretty obvious, but after years of wrapping myself in all kinds of materials from silk to chamois, it occurs to me that of course, my favorite is the one with cotton loops on the inside. Can there be a less sexy, less evocative term than “terry cloth”? Cheers to the Brits for lazy day snuggling of the cozy or literary varieties!

  

  Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

• A foamy latte (made for you) - I don’t suppose it’s to everyone’s specifications, and might actually hew closer to a large cappuccino in my ideal form, but it evokes a story that’s my gold standard for joyful appreciation. Some years ago, a young friend Instagram-celebrated coffee break and the buddy who made her this drink. She claims not to have foreseen their pending love match, but the foamy latte was a good opener. Now, they’re partners and parents, hopefully still steaming milk for one another. I can’t help receiving a latte without this reminder to gratitude.

• Sitting with tea - I’ve written before about the different joys in coffee and tea, and the especial presence of tea times. But a friend suffering from insomnia, up at 4 or 5 am day after day, recognized it as something more - a third way beyond fight or give in. When she found herself awake too early, “sitting with tea” became a reimagining mantra for the early hours, a way to embrace pleasures in quiet aloneness. While I would prefer to delay the experience well past sunrise, there’s much to honor in this invitation to be still and at peace.

• Walking and talking - You can process the world in reflection or rumination; you can process it with the written word; or you can process it with a companion, walking and talking. Just a little wedge of magical time, where the head and the heart and the soul might come together.

• Just because we can doesn’t mean we should - my family may hear this one too often, but as a maxim for modernity, it is endlessly applicable. Sure, you could just keep scrolling, could spend your life striving, could elevate hustle over happiness, likes over love, ends over means. With better options than what our culture is selling everywhere, and all around, it’s important to remind ourselves that we get to choose. The magic, of course, is in choosing well.

• Being known - I have long elevated knowing. You can read, research, collect, weigh, analyze and synthesize for a sense of agency and authority. It feels good to know. But being known is something else. It prevents us from disappearing. It brings us into community. Being seen is wonderful, but it’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s not far off to say that being known is the magic we all need.

• “Best day ever” - Not long ago, according to somebody’s a favorite auntie (or godparent, or babysitter extraordinaire), a boy came face to face with the summer’s day of his dreams. With pizza, the lake, ice cream, kayaks, dog encounters, games, it sounded pretty great. The boy’s response -“Best Day Ever” on repeat - couldn’t help but affirm the caregiver’s every choice. It also sowed a seed. Adult decorum leads us temper our enthusiasms. But should we? In future, when I recognize the good, the really good, or the really, really good, I want to remember to let my pleasure show! It’s a guaranteed way to share the magic with those around me.

  

  Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

  What snippets of magic are showing up in your days right now?