The good stuff
The good stuff.
A passport full of stamps. Big family gatherings. Kids on the honor roll and varsity soccer team. Brunch plans. Dinner parties full of laughter that last until midnight. Book club, the New Year’s Eve party, the weekly Friday pizza after the softball game. Getting the promotion, hosting the fundraiser. A full holiday table. The annual beach trip with your best friends, the surprise party for the milestone birthday, the backyard barbecues, the tickets to that concert. Catching up with someone over coffee, trying that new restaurant everyone’s talking about, baby showers, bridal showers, themed costume parties …
These, we are told, are the moments. The ones to savor, chase, cherish. The ones that go on the holiday card, the social media posts. The ones you rattle off when asked “what have you been up to?”
You know. The good stuff.
And maybe you enjoy some of these, or all of these.
Or maybe your favorite moments, the ones that you savor, chase, and cherish, look different.
Maybe your idea of the perfect day is a completely open calendar. Perhaps that’s your idea of the perfect month.
Maybe you’d love to spend weekend nights with your favorite TV characters while texting “your Person,” even if they’re seated right beside you. Not just some weekend nights. Most of them. All of them.
Perhaps you love to travel locally, or alone, or not at all. Maybe your idea of the perfect holiday involves pajamas, a really good sandwich, and peaceful solitude.
Maybe your closest and most cherished friendship centers around mailing them books you think they’ll love. Perhaps you love best from afar, or connect best through handwritten letters or funny postcards instead of in-person conversation.
Maybe the best thing about your year was finally finding the perfect bedding and getting consistently good sleep. Perhaps it was filling a sketchbook cover to cover, or your kids discovering the joy of a pillow fort that lasted a full week. Hours spent alone in your garden, toiling over the manuscript you’re meant to write, watching the sunrise and the sunset.
Perhaps your love language is inside jokes exchanged via text message. Or being given unlimited space. Or that person who never forgets to say Happy Birthday even if you don’t talk to them the rest of the year.
Maybe you feel intense joy in cooking the same meal over and over, or watching the rain, declining the phone call, or having a corner of the house that’s entirely your own. Perhaps it’s a really good peach. Your favorite song on repeat.
Don’t let anyone try to tell you these are the in-between moments, these are the moments.
Only you get to define your good stuff.
