just stop for one moment

a reminder of what you can control

Over my summer of reading, of which there have been many delights and very few disappointments, I realised that what I most love in a novel is the domestic. I want to read about normal people - their failures and foibles - and also how they drink tea, or rushedly pull on a coat, or have to lie down in a dark room because they just need solitude, that exquisite quiet.

Perhaps in these tiny moments of humanness, I relate most to the character on the page because beyond the drama or slow unfurling of the plot, they are going about each day as all of us do. It made me wonder how bringing our most perfect selves to socials is skewing our communal understanding of what’s normal. Life is so aspirational and we’re constantly encouraged to do better! I wonder: can’t we just be who we really are? Perhaps instead of bettering and improving, we can sit at the kitchen table drinking tea and eating cake and just take a moment to stop all the noise and think about stuff.

What are you thinking about in these moments? Likely not much at all. But ‘nothing’ is everything. It’s the grounding you need before ideas and motivation come to you. ‘Nothing’ is rest, as you gaze into the middle distance and ponder your day; the washing you hung, the form you need to complete, the sitting in stillness just letting your breath settle as your body does, too. The opportunity to slow down and reflect is so simple and accessible and yet we often skip over the opportunities to do it, because there’s always somewhere else to be or something else to do.

There’s always an excuse not to sit in quiet and mull a bit.