Another way I find joy is by actively looking for it. I've been paying attention over the past year to not only what I find satisfying when it's complete, but what I truly love while I'm doing it. I'm happy to report, I mostly only do what I want to do.

I'm feeling extra tender these days. I'm crying because of beauty and kindness and memory and grief. I'm finding it helpful to acknowledge that we are experiencing collective trauma, and I thought maybe it might help you, too, if I said it out loud. It might not show up as obviously in day to day life, but it's there. An inability to concentrate, low-key loneliness, unexpected overwhelm, uncertainty. It's insidious.

I have spent my whole life trying to convince people that what I do isn't magic, but what if it is?