I made a list of 6 very simple things that are bringing me joy this summer season. I suppose after a frustrating weekend, it’s a practice in gratitude and as this is my journal, I decided to share the list here.
Wearing my designs
Throwing the clothing I designed on for summer beach days or dinners and then having women ask me what I’m wearing and where they can get it too. It’s strange I never willfully announce what I do for living and when someone does ask, I tend to gloss over my profession as quickly as possible. However, when a woman asks about my clothes, I cannot help but feel proud to say, ‘oh this? I designed this’.
Peaches.
I cannot get enough of them. Whole, icy from the fridge, dotted in small slices on top of my cornflakes or oats, thrown into my tote to remember and eat later. I fall so intensely in love with seasonal fruit that I feel genuine sadness when they disappear from the store, like saying goodbye to a friend you won’t see until next year. I miss clementines for longer than they are in season. Peaches, I will miss you. Stick around for as long as you can, my home is your home.
Colleen Hoover
You already knew this author would be included here, I read one of her books on a whim in early May and since then I have developed a full-blown, slightly concerning addiction. I think I’ve swept through 13 of her books and we are only at the end of June. I just purchased another 7?! I cannot afford to keep buying these books at full price but I also cannot stop. It’s been a strange, stressful time in my professional life so her books arrived when I most needed a delicious distraction. I cannot even tell you how much I look forward to slipping into my linen sheets, freshly showered with one of her books in my hand.
The Gym
This spring I fell out of love with the gym. I missed a lot of workouts back then because I simply could not walk into the gym without feeling intense annoyance. I always know I am burning out when the things that bring me joy begin to greatly irritate me. I was coming off a very intense winter of workouts and bulking and reading all kinds of fitness literature – it was an overload I didn’t need because sometimes I forget that I am not a professional athlete, even if I do feel as powerful as one. My disinterest lasted just under 2 months and I began to worry that I would always approach my workouts with the same energy I approach laundry, which is zero energy, total lethargy in fact. And yet like all great loves, it came back and I genuinely wake up and am excited to go to the gym. Not everyday but most days. I am still having to remind myself I’m not training for the olympics but then again, that’s a reminder I’ll always need to keep in mind because I sway towards excessiveness in all of my life focuses.
Iced Coffee
Is it even summer if you don’t heartlessly abandon every kind of hot coffee for its icy sibling? I cannot even look at a flat white or a latte because it’s too.damn.hot. The coffee spot near our office sells their ice coffee with a double shot and it’s the closest I’ve gotten to being high in decades but considering the economy and the downturn in sales, it’s a high I need. A required high. But if there isn’t ice in the drink, I do not want it. Be it water, juice, wine or caffeine. No ice? Get.it.away.from.me.
My apartment
This time last year I was still living in my office, already half-abandoned by my ex-boyfriend who had shared the space with me throughout covid. I felt like I was living in the emotional aftermath of our break up, as if it were in the walls themselves. It was such a strange transitional period and one I was desperately ready to leave. It hasn’t even been a year since signing the lease on this little penthouse of mine but with every day, I am more grateful. There is literally nowhere rather be. One of my favourite things to do is eat outdoors in this city, which I can now do right here at home by stepping out onto my terrace. My home is incredibly quiet, incredibly clean, incredibly comfortable – exactly the opposite of where I lived before. Here too exists every modern amenity I lacked while I navigated living in my workspace for the years that I did. I love coming back here, sweaty and slightly irritated from trudging through the hot city, flinging my bag on the kitchen counter, collapsing onto the sofa under the cool of the air con and sighing into the fact that the day is done and I am finally, finally at peace, alone at home.
