Glimmers 009 ✧˖°
week 25: big exhales and summer nights
Happy Sunday, folks! It’s been a hot minute.
I’ve been unintentionally radio silent these past few weeks (months?) with all the craziness in my life — and honestly, I’ve felt sad about it. But between moving to a new place, catching up on intense work deadlines, and just trying to stay afloat while seesawing between overwhelm and the emotional dips that follow adrenaline crashes, I realized I had to let go of a few things to take care of myself. Sometimes, life is life-ing and you just gotta roll with it.
So this is an effort to build this habit again — because I seriously miss it!
Here it is — a list of my favorite °˖glimmers˖° that made my days a little brighter the past week:
✧˖° The big elephant in the room: my client filed1! This is basically what my team and I have been working towards, the past months - and the last couple of days have admittedly been rough. It happened in Wednesday so everything after that is an effort to come off that high-stress mode. Once I logged off that day, it felt like a much deserved exhale. I am always surprised and in awe of how resilient I have become year-by-year. But I am glad that’s finally out of the way ~
✧˖° I finished 2 books! (Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness and Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing With Feathers) Given how dismal my reading pace this year is, this is such a big deal for me. 🥹
✧˖° This Modern Love episode featuring Celine Song (two of my faves!). I loved this episode/conversation to bits - that love is one of the easiest things, love at first conversation, those specific ‘love as verb’ moments, and that essay author update that feels like it was plucked straight out of a romcom. This distinctly made me think about this quote (one of my favorite conversations/quotes about love). Please listen to this episode if you are a romantic like me:
✧˖° A streak of lovely sunny summer nights. The first night when there wasn’t a deadline hanging over my head, my friends and I went to do a bit of (picnic) hang-out at the park. I brought a flask of creamy milky coffee with me, and a raspberry and white chocolate scone I got from a bakery. That, and sitting in the sun, while reading about food (Tiny Moon!) was perfect. Of course, I’ve only done a little bit of reading but it was still a very good time.
✧˖° Summer solstice. The longest day of the year (and I spent a lot of it napping in my beautiful bed 😅. sorry not sorry).
✧˖° That weekend hike/long walk with friends, in a mid-20s weather in the UK. Getting lost, and laughing about it. Priceless.
✧˖° The glorious lunch in an underrated Thai restaurant after that escapade. I didn’t expect too much for that £10 set lunch menu - but it was so tasty. That spicy & sour chicken coconut soup was something I’ve never had before and I fell in love with it. So as the stir-fried pork in chili and basil leaf that I got. We finished it off with the mango sticky rice (which is why I really wanna come to this place) and the vanilla ice cream I got for dessert was a perfect pairing for it. I didn’t know if it was because we were tired from the long walk but 10/10, one of the best lunches we’ve had. (Highly recommended: The Golden Elephant)
✧˖° Olivia Dean songs in my Pilates teacher’s playlist. Whenever the first few notes of any Olivia Dean song unexpectedly comes on, I feel a smile always involuntarily sneak up on my face. A recent release and a favorite lately:
✧˖° Napping after long day.
✧˖° Crispy American-style streaky bacon with anything.
✧˖° Cup of Jo’s weekend link lists. A great start to my weekends, always.
✧˖° Wild poppies all around! Those wonderful shades of red popping against the greens, I mean, c’mon!
A little side note: I’ve unearthed this piece (linked below) by Hannah as a much-needed reminder. It was dated waaay back in the winter, and now that we’ve officially ushered summer, I can’t believe there’s yet another new thing. Days, weeks, months go by, and a new scary thing comes up - like a wave, over and over — and it is hard to feel hopeful most of the time. Reading the news lately made me feel like sharing these silly little things is selfish. But I keep reminding myself that it’s not a crime to revel in all the little, beautiful things life has to offer despite all that’s been happening in the world lately. So hold fast, stay aware, pray (if you practice), spread awareness if you can - all the little things count, if a lot of us do it. And also, don’t forget to take care of your self.
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I work in SOX, so this is such a big thing.
Sorry to hear things have been so busy, but congrats on the work milestone! I recently read The Emperor of Gladness and adored it. Tiny Moons has been on my list for such a long time too – glad you're enjoying it!