Dear wonderers,
This world is thriving on overstimulation. But has forgotten patience. We want change but we end up feeding on either superficiality or nostalgia. As I’m turning 36 this weekend, I cannot help but feel guilty for not having enough patience and having all the nostalgia in the world — for something that never was in the first place, I guess…
I recently had a conversation that left me thinking: the world has taken a turn into uncertainty as the “new normal”. I hate so many things about this statement, but it doesn’t make it less true. It also makes it more understandable when we want to escape into social media, Netflix, gaming, books, you name it. I know I do - into all of them.
Yet, there’s an antidote to that: to feeling uncertain, to feeling old, to running away, to feeling like there’s no word to describe it.
I’ve experienced it all through these days, with every message pouring in, with every heartfelt emotion shared, with every nudge towards kindness — a reminder that life is patient and changes rhythm, when you stop and let it. Even for a few moments.
This is a long and winded introduction to say that, for this edition of
, let’s pause, reflect, and appreciate the nudges and “little” joys.9 of them:
#ToSee
The history of Earth in an hour. Animated. A bit fun. Not superficial at all, when you try to embrace the scale of it - as only Kurzgesagt know how to explain it:
Past lives, Celine Song’s film about the selves we could have become within other relationships, a reflection on love, identity, and family that tackles crucial topics for today: migration, creativity, foreignness. Sprinkled with the South Korean subtlety of all the heaviness of a pause or a smile.
Even if you aren’t interested in Anthony Bourdain or don’t know much about his legacy, I urge you to watch Roadrunner with an open mind. It’s not just about the life of a storyteller, but about ways to shift perspectives — through food, lens, and almost poetry.
#ToListen
A musical gift I received yesterday. One to share and rejoice together:
On Being is the kind of podcast that quickly turns into meditative attention. Each episode is a deep dive into the inner worlds of very diverse people and an invitation to connect with meaning. Start with Nick Cave and his “spirituality of rigor.”
Latest musical obsession from Beirut’s latest album, recorded in Norway. Search for the lyrics while you’re at it :)
#ToRead
How much do you know about Diogenes and ancient cynics? I didn’t know much at all (although I had the impression I did), but this guide created by Psyche was such a good introduction. When you feel like the rules of the current world make no sense, take a page out of the cynics’ philosophy - it will surprise you:
By implication, one might say that, to live like a Cynic, you need to become supple and remain open to the unexpected. For this to happen, you must free yourself of any fixed ideas about what your life will or should be like, and you must be prepared to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in. The Cynic does not live in a manner that is decided in advance, or according to rules that are prefigured, or preordained. For his part, Diogenes appears repeatedly as extremely resourceful, adaptable and resilient in the various stories that were told of his life.
Laura Imai Messina, the Italian writer with a Japanese soul, and two of her novels (I know, I’m cheating maths a bit with this recommendation): The phone booth at the end of the world and, for my Romanian readers here, Viețile secrete ale culorilor (Italian in original, not yet translated in English - I do hope they do).
Both embrace the sensibilities of the in-between when it comes to love, death, loss, and rediscovery — with a kind view of what it means to be human and what it means to be in the Japanese space.
“As children we see happiness as a thing. A toy train sticking out of a basket or the plastic film around a slice of cake. or a photograph of a scene in which we are at the centre, all eyes on us.
As adults it gets more complicated. Happiness is success, work, a man or a woman. All vague, laborious things. Whether it's a word we use to describe our lives or not, it is mostly just that, a word.
Childhood taught us something different about happiness, Yui thought, that all you needed to do was reach out your hand in the right direction and you could grasp it.”
Ted Chiang’s collection of short stories: Exhalation — speculative fiction at its highest with thoughtful, profound, sometimes frightening, alternate realities and histories of ourselves.
“As he practiced his writing, Jijingi came to understand what Moseby had meant: writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it. And words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking. When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at your thoughts in a way you couldn’t if you were just talking, and having seen them, you could improve them, make them stronger and more elaborate.”
Until next time, keep the joys going!