102. Today, I Wanted To Be Happy 🙂
Friends, good morning ☀️☀️
It’s (almost) the weekend.
Here’s three things you may find interesting and/or meaningful.
1. Island Life 🏝️
Vianca Soleil Roquero grew up in Manila, lived in Dubai, USA and Kenya before settling on Puro Island in the idyllic Phillipines. You can read about her beach house project called Unna here, and start planning your trip here.
2. A Poem 🙂
Today, I wanted to be happy — Malinda Meadows
Today, I wanted to be happy,
so I scooped tart ice cream
into an amber-colored cup.
It tasted like the citrus of summers past,
temporarily banishing this one spent indoors.
Today, I wanted to be happy,
so I snipped off leaves of tarragon,
sliced slices of tomatoes,
mushed and married butter, flour, eggs and salt.
I said no to emails,
I said no to hate spewed online.
Instead, I wanted to be happy.
So I pinched lettuce leaves away from their roots,
and placed them beside a warm-from-the-oven tomato tart.
My hands weren’t done yet,
so they shuffled some cards,
and dealt a winning hand of Rummy.
Even though I didn’t make any money today,
it felt like a productive day as any,
and, perhaps, not surprisingly at all,
today…I was very happy.
3. Reading 🔖
I wrote about the book that’s changed my mind about short stories (did not used to enjoy them at all!) and an essay about not having children by choice that is the most eloquent writing on this topic that I’ve ever read.
See you next weekend.