Stopping to notice the little things.
For the past few weeks I’ve been learning to cultivate a new morning routine: carpooling into Harvard Square and then making my way into town towards the office by the North End. I’ve been stopping for coffee at 1369 for their cold brew, and then walking purposefully as far as I can get before heat overtakes me. Then, I hop on the MBTA to cut three quarters of a mile from my route in order to make it in time to morning meetings. Usually it’s only the distance from Kendall to MGH, but even that is enough respite from the outdoor sauna these days. (That is, when the T deigns to have the air conditioning on.)
While walking, I’ll have a single ear bud in, partially listening to the world around me, and at the same time listening to a book on tape or a podcast. This week it’s been Ruth Reichl’s Delicious. On the T, I pull out my phone and read books that I determine public transportation worthy, usually of the non-fiction self help variety that I can read a few pages at a time. I’m finishing up Arianna Huffington’s Thrive, which has taken me a month so far, because my T rides have been few and far between as the weather’s been (mostly) lovely.
Today’s chapter was about gratitude exercises, or “intentionally bringing into awareness the tiny, previously unnoticed elements of the day” – a practice of I’m already a big believer in. I found myself highlighting this paragraph, because I’m all about calm at night these days:
“Gratitude exercises have been proven to have tangible benefits. According to a study by the researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida, having participants write down a list of positive events at the close of a day – and why the events made them happy – lowered their self-reported stress levels and gave them a greater sense of calm at night.”
For me, gratitude practice often comes in a form of a list, but sometimes it’s just the photos I take during the day on my iPhone. The little things that make me pause and smile that I’d like to remember later.
Today, for instance – a particularly funny doge meme outside of J.P. Licks – because Shiba Inus are really the cutest. Which reminded me of course of this picture above that I snapped a few weeks ago of the dog walker in the neighborhood. What’s better than one dog? Six. And then there’s this huge bucket of macerating strawberries that I saw in the windows of Toscanini’s – some of the best ice cream in the world.
I was expecting ice cream on our Data team outing this afternoon, but instead we ended up on the roof deck at Sam’s on the Waterfront, where we shared some appetizers – crispy french fries, edamame hummus with papadums, fried zucchini sticks, and a cheese plate. I’d been craving oysters, so I lucked out with a little plate of my own. There was cold lemonade, a few gin cocktails and a scorpion bowl, and talk of endurance sports – a few of us are crazy enough to want to take on races beyond our wildest dreams –and the prices of cable these days, pregnancy taboos, net neutrality, and childhood films. Two at the table had not seen the Goonies, which we might have to remedy on a quieter work afternoon!
For dinner, we tucked in with sushi and an episode of True Blood, and tonight I’m thankful for the fact that I’m an adult, and while teenage me would have been appalled, I can read a chapter or two of a book and be out like a light before ten p.m. this fine evening.
What are the tiny things that may have gone unnoticed in your day today?
