Take a Look at the Inside of My Brain

What you get when you subscribe to my daily newsletter - a quick peek at the insides, raw and real, looking for delight and joy every day.

Hello! Thank you for being here. This is my space for exploring ideas about what brings joy, what it takes to find joy and goodness in the world, and my space for expressing frustration at just how hard it is some days.

This is me, delighted to find the sun came out for just a few minutes right at sunset.

This newsletter is for you if you feel a little confused about life’s purpose. If you feel like you’ve lost touch with something important but can’t quite put your finger on what. If you want more: new ideas, new skills, more depth to your experiences.

This newsletter is for people who want to feel joy, to connect with their carefree younger self, to enjoy what is right in front of them that they feel disconnected from--be it kids, pets, partners, nature, loved ones.

I write for these people because I am these people. I am struggling through these deep trenches, coming up for air and confused much of the time. But each day I stop and find three things to talk about, think about, write about. Silly things. Delightful things. And in sharing these things, I hope we can all feel less alone.

(If you want to sample some of my writing, my best things lists, the linked passages will take you to specific days.)

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I think we’re all a little exhausted by our modern world. Our world full of wonders like the super computers we carry in our pockets. (But somehow, still no hovercars. I’ve been waiting for the hovercars. My disappointment is profound.) Our world full of constant news, terrible stories, awareness of the deep suffering many experience. It is easy to numb ourselves. Along with supercomputers in our pockets, we have infinite scroll, autoplay, up next. We don’t have to think, we can just scroll the feed, or let the feed play constantly onto our retinas.

But I think most of us are a little exhausted by all that, too. We’re searching for more. We’re on a quest for deeper meaning. 

We’re tired of waking up tired. 

When I embarked on my Best Things journey in 2017 I had no idea how many ways the simple practice of writing about the 3 best things I experienced each day would change my life. I struggle even now to put into words the differences between Today Karen and the Before Karen. I didn’t know what I needed until I found myself in this place opening myself up to the universe and feeling the universe hug me back.

It’s not only that I’ve learned so much, although I have. But it has changed the way I see the world. I now have a lens of delight and joy through which to see things. Sometimes I lose track of this lens. I forget I have it, but I can still find it each day, put it on like a pair of glasses or that really comfortable sweater--the one with the deep pockets and the good buttons. 

I struggle with feelings of worthiness, with impostor syndrome every day. I worry somewhat constantly about my proto-adult kids. I have had unbearably bad days. I feel things deeply. Frankly I think this practice has given me a key to even deeper feelings, accessing wells of emotions I used to try to avoid or pretend I wasn’t feeling. 

It is hard to ride along with those emotional waves, hard to keep my head above the water line, but it is important. I can see the beauty in these waves. I want to share that beauty with others. 

If you’re like me, maybe you’ve done some of the work already, maybe you’ve processed some of your own bullshit. Then you look up one day and it’s like…and? Now what? 

I’m obsessed with this space, this stretch of yearning, of seeking meaning, of looking for joy, of returning to our essential essences, of coming home to ourselves. 

I want to build a community of like-minded folks searching for meaning in the everyday. Looking for awe in simple things like leaves and patterns of sunlight and the infinity contained in a dog’s soulful eyes. 

River birch leaves in the grass

When we’re connected, we’re better, stronger, more resilient. We can manage the ups and downs more elegantly. Okay fine that might be a stretch. Let’s say we can manage them at least slightly less awkwardly. 

One tip: learning to embrace the awkward has been very freeing for me. Living in a human body is full of so much awkwardness I had to give up on my attempts to eliminate being awkward. I’m here for the bumbling, and for the things these silly bodies do, like the universal open-palmed wave at the end of a vid call, or the gasp of delight that I’ve learned to associate with a moment of awe. The way your face has your unique forehead crease when you’re deep in thought or struggling to remember something and that’s different than my unique forehead crease. Aren’t forehead creases delightful in their infinite permutations?

I invite you to join me, the writing part is optional.

You can join me in my search for 3 good things each day even if you don’t also engage in the practice (though I invite you to try! Here’s a quick one-minute explainer from the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman.) You don’t have to be a writer to connect with simple joys in your everyday life. You can work on finding your own lens, seeing your own truth, extending your own best effort looking for awe. 

And you can share in the comments on my posts and essays, connect with me on Notes, and join in my effort to make the world less exhausting.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned it is this: I have to stick my physical body, this meat sack with a Duracell battery in its head, out into nature every single day. Turns out it’s solar powered, who knew?

I’m a gardener and my yard is filled with endless wonder for me.