Open-hearted joys 開開心心 47

While April has been decidedly quiet on both the blog and social media front, I’m never not capturing life’s little joys in some way or other. This month, I’ve spent a lot of time with my journals, ruminating life at the moment and making sense of the anxieties and doubts regularly coursing through my mind lately. Thanks to plenty of therapy and counselling, I understand that, sometimes, it can just be this way.

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 fortnight:

一. A weekend walk through bluebell-blanketed woodlands with my love. Nothing short of dreamy.

二. Finishing The Glory on Netflix. It’s far different from the K-dramas I usually watch and recommend, but I loved it. Song Hye-kyo is incredible in this!

三. Slowly but surely recognising myself again. It’s been a rough few weeks, but day by day I feel 1% more myself again. Ready for my spring renewal.

四. Lee Gi Kwang – ‘Predator’. Sorry, but this entire album is one huge flex.

五. Our mother-and-daughters trip to Rome – so much fun (and so much pasta)! A bumper travel guide is coming to the blog soon, now that I’ve traversed this gorgeous city twice over.

六. Evenings plugging away at Atelier Ryza 3, it feels so gratifying to tick off quests and progress in the story. I’ll be sad when I complete this game since it’s the last in the series.

七. Seeing the joy on my dog’s face when we take him for his Big Walk™ at the lakes.

八. Setting up my new journal, as I’m already almost out of space in my current bujo. Apparently I’ve had a LOT of feelings during these first four months of the year…! Excitingly, I’m trying out reverting to a ring binder agenda for the first time in YEARS. I was once a devoted Filofax girl and can’t wait to see how this changes my productivity and focus.

九. I made a delicious vegan Caesar salad on Monday evening and topped it with The Vegetarian Butcher pieces and home-baked ciabatta croutons. Sooo good, and I’ll definitely be keeping this in my weekday dinners roster.

十. How perfectly green all of the trees are at the moment! On your next walk, put your phone and headphones away – just soak up the views and natural sounds.

What are some of the little joys in your life lately?