A Few Good Things (1)
A few good things despite the circumstances.
Welcome to a few good things—where I share with you a few good things I’ve experienced lately. Something artsy, a fun thing to do, a recipe, a book, and a kind interaction with a stranger. I’ve tried to pick things are are free (at least with a library card and an internet connection) because I think there’s this misconception that if we just had a little bit more money we would be endlessly happy but of course that’s never the case. I want to use these posts to highlight the simple joys we can find in our everyday lives. And with that, let’s begin!
Something artsy: Joy Oladokun’s music
Joy Oladokun is a brilliant lyricist and frankly I relate to her music way too much. I’m very proud of the fact that I was one of her top 100 listeners on Apple Music last year. Something about the way she writes and sings allows me just a little bit of wallowing about the state of the world before I am compelled to feel (perhaps unreasonably) grateful for still being alive anyway.
Joy Oladokun will bring the intense pain of grief to life in one song and then say “This world on fire still has good to discover” (that’s from “I’d Miss The Birds” off her most recent album Observations From A Crowded Room) in the next one. I especially love listening to her music on road trips because of how long and beautifully sequenced her albums are.
It’s hard to tell you which album to listen to first. I suppose starting with Proof of Life is a good place. It came out in 2023 and it’s one of the best artistic reflections on the mess that was the year 2020. I distinctly remember sitting outside on the back porch and crying while listening to it. I had listened to the album a few times before then but something about that day helped me recognize everything I’d lost from having the later half of my junior and all of my senior year of high school online. I hadn’t fully processed that before then.
Here’s a link to the first song on Proof of Life:
Something fun to do: Declutter and decorate!
Every August or September I get this urge to completely overhaul my life before the school year starts. This year, I tried to be more realistic. I did a few days of this decluttering challenge from Clutterbug on YouTube:
Her essential decluttering method is to get rid of five things in a particular category in five minutes. You don’t need to pull all your clothes out of your closet and try them on, just get rid of the first few things you see that don’t fit right or don’t match your life anymore. I found this far more approachable than having to get out all my clothes and examine how I really felt about them.
Although I was hesitant to do her method with my books, I ended up with an entire box to donate. They’re mostly books that I bought thinking I’d love, read, and liked but have no desire to read again. I’m looking forward to dropping them off at the used book store and giving them a new home with someone who will love them. Now there’s a little more space for the books I’ll love in the future.
I’m also making an effort to make my room cozier for fall. I’ve started lighting candles in the evenings and finally enlisted help (thanks Mom and Dad) to put up the curtain lights my brother got me for my birthday a few years ago. My room looks so much prettier now and I’m in such a fall/winter mood.
I’m not really sure if this is all that “fun” but it’s set me up to have more fun. Having a little less stuff to worry about and a little more to appreciate in my space has been wonderful—I’m writing this while looking at my pretty lights and smelling my honeycrisp apple candle.
A Recipe: Kylie Sakaida’s delicious salmon rice bowl!
I’ve tried a few of her recipes now and they’ve all been easy and delicious. This one is just rice, salmon, vegetables, and sauce all cooked in a rice cooker. I do sometimes modify the recipe by using premade sauce and I like to add carrots for an extra vegetable. It’s super quick to make for a last minute dinner but I actually like it better cold the day after.
A book (series): The Supernatural Investigations Series by B.B. Alston
I’m someone who reads with the intention of learning how to write. I’m very analytical about character arcs and voice and which type of structure a story is following even when reading a book for the first time. Because of this, I frequently predict the books ending long before I’m probably “supposed to.”
When I explain this, people often ask me if doing this ruins my reading experience, it never does. In fact, in general I think that if knowing the ending is going to completely ruin a book for someone, the book probably isn’t very good.
But sometimes, I read a book with the tropes I’ve been familiar with since I was first learning to read and I’m completely blindsided by the ending anyway. It’s the books that allow me to suspend my disbelief and become fully immersed in that I love the most—B.B. Alston’s three entries into this middle grade fantasy series have all done that for me.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that reading this series has me feeling like I’m twelve again. With each book I’ve found myself staying up late so I can stay in the story a little longer. I finished the third book (Amari and the Despicable Wonders) right around midnight and spent the next thirty minutes rereading the last scenes as I was struck with the message of profound love and forgiveness. All the signs of the ending were right there, but I was so swept up in the whimsy, humor, and moments of resistance the characters showed that I didn’t see it coming. I’ll leave it there so as to avoid spoilers, but perhaps I’ll make another post just discussing that third book. I could write about how brilliant it is for hours. 1
A kind interaction with a stranger:
Over the past couple of months I’ve become the kind of person who “goes to the gym.” (My elementary school self would be so disappointed in me.) I’ve gotten to the point of (mostly) feeling comfortable using the weight machines and actually understanding what I’m doing but being there still feels a little intimidating to me.
After you finish using a machine, you have to sanitize. There’s stations scattered throughout the gym that have a big paper towel roll and a bottle of sanitizing spray on top of a trash can. You go up to the station, tear off a piece of paper towel, spray the sanitizing spray on it, and go back to wipe down your machine.
There’s this little moment of awkwardness whenever there’s already someone at the station closest to you. Who takes the spray first? Do I say something to them as I wait for them to finish using it? Are they judging me for not being as skinny as they are? Do I walk to the one further away just to avoid them?
Like a lot of things I’m anxious about—it’s never that serious, usually everyone keeps their headphones in and just ignores each other.
All this to say, the other day I went to the station to sanitize my machine and a girl was already there using the spray. I ripped off the paper towel from the roll. When she was done with the spray bottle, instead of putting it down on the top of the trash can she handed it directly to me and smiled.
I hope I smiled back, but I think I was probably too surprised to really know how to react. On the one hand, the fact that people rarely talk to each other when doing this reminds me that everyone at the gym is focused on themselves and not judging me but on the other this girl’s silent acknowledgment of my presence at the gym made me feel like I truly belonged.
I hope you enjoyed and felt encouraged by my first attempt at sharing “A Few Good Things.” I’m planning on posting one of these every month or so but we’ll see how life goes. Trying to put this together has made me feel more positive about life, so I look forward to doing it again. Now I turn to you—What good things have you experienced in the last few weeks? A new television show? A stranger being unexpectedly nice to you? I’m excited to hear!
I realize after writing all of this that I didn’t actually explain any of the premise or basic plot of the book, but I suppose you can just google that.