Whereas Wit & Delight has been quieter for a yr now, I’ve been writing greater than ever. As I’ve slowed down my publishing cadence, my curiosity about the way in which we stay—and why—has ripened. I’m fascinated by what sits beneath the veneer of aesthetics—how we beautify our areas, who we let in, and who we preserve out. Most significantly, I’ve reconnected with what it means to thrill in our personal way of life.
The act of writing about these experiences has been deeply transformative for me. It’s introduced up conversations with readers I’d have by no means had in short-form, visual-based content material. That is what I really like most about Substack.
Whereas I proceed to share way of life content material and the occasional private essay right here on Wit & Delight, I additionally publish weekly on Home Name, a Substack e-newsletter through which I discover why our properties—and the lives we lead inside their partitions—matter a lot. For brand new or longtime readers who haven’t discovered their technique to Home Name fairly but, I encourage you to peruse this physique of labor.
Under is an unique excerpt from a latest Home Name essay, “In Favor of a Quiet Residence Life.” Choosing a quieter life within the face of an more and more noisy world felt like profession demise for my way of life model—however one I desperately wanted for myself. I wrote about making room for vacancy, having fun with easy pleasures, and delighting in quiet moments at dwelling. I hope you benefit from the essay and be a part of me over on Substack.
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Home Name Excerpt: In Favor of a Quiet Residence Life
Amid the repetitive rhythm of every day life, certainly one of my favourite indulgences is the act of daydreaming. Ever since I used to be a baby, I’ve discovered myself wandering freely by way of the realms of creativeness. What began with a unconscious want to assuage myself, at its greatest, has confirmed fertile floor for a wealthy inside life. The mundane turns into magical, and the strange is remodeled into the extraordinary. My daydreaming has given technique to lucid dreaming and generally these photographs are so vivid, actuality pales as compared.
Once I gained the nickname “Spacey Katie” for wandering in my thoughts throughout educational classes, dance lessons, and softball video games, I realized my tendency to take away myself from the right here and now wasn’t precisely serving to me navigate social settings. Like most introverts, I noticed my pure state as “much less” than—one thing to “repair” to excel on this world.
However recently, I’ve discovered myself making extra room for introversion. This winter was deafeningly quiet in all areas of my life, a type of magic darkish that felt intentional. Like house had been made to return dwelling to this a part of myself. I didn’t have my normal escapes: my creativity felt stunted, schedules have been bare-bones, and indulging in alcohol and meals simply made me really feel worse. My instinct was telling me to take the quiet and simply be with the vacancy. I quickly got here to understand this vacancy was life-giving.
How Delight and Residence Life Intersect
As I progressively opened as much as this name towards introversion, I stored coming again to how delight and a quiet dwelling life intersect. It was the place I had given myself time to be taught to be OK with issues as they have been, to rehabilitate my petulance for extra, extra, extra.
These little duties—these neglected, underrated, easy pleasures (heat toast with tea in a sunsoaked chair for instance)—have been doing extra for my temper and sense of well-being at dwelling than churning away at undertaking after undertaking. I began questioning whether it is even attainable to take pleasure in our properties if we don’t know how one can discover pleasure in simply being. All of the paint colours, wallpapers, and patterns can’t be translated into an inside sense of permission to sink into your self by way of the pleasure of merely being dwelling.
This delight I’ve been chasing since 2009 was by no means going to disclose itself by way of self-improvement or cookie-cutter recommendation from {a magazine} on how one can beautify my home. In reality, I don’t assume there’s a handbook in any respect. When designing a life well-lived, one needs to be courageous sufficient to let go of the personas, masks, and armor they’ve amassed. Maybe releasing what isn’t ours and letting issues die that weren’t meant for us is the one technique to design a life that appears like dwelling. Sadly, this course of isn’t a path lined with candy-colored daisies however one which extra so resembles a stroll by way of Loss of life Valley.
I began questioning whether it is even attainable to take pleasure in our properties if we don’t know how one can discover pleasure in simply being. All of the paint colours, wallpapers, and patterns can’t be translated into an inside sense of permission to sink into your self by way of the pleasure of merely being dwelling.
This week on Home Name, I wish to contact on the facility of our properties past the way in which they appear. The inspiration for this put up got here from years of engaged on my dwelling however not essentially feeling good within the areas I used to be creating. Once I requested myself what makes me really feel most content material and delighted at dwelling, what revealed itself shocked me.
What a Quiet Residence Life Represents for Me
Areas that stay fixed.
It’s necessary to have locations in my dwelling I’m not actively updating—rooms I merely let be. It’s a apply that brings me each consolation and a way of peace. These areas, which embody my bed room, kitchen, and workplace, have advanced to replicate my altering wants and preferences. Whereas I nonetheless make occasional changes, I’ve determined to deliberately chorus from making important modifications to those rooms except there’s a clear want for an replace. . . .
These areas have change into extra than simply rooms in my dwelling. They’ve change into extensions of myself, reflecting my persona, values, and aspirations. By permitting them to be, I permit myself to understand the sweetness and luxury of the current second with out the fixed want for change.
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Kate is the founding father of Wit & Delight. She is presently studying how one can play tennis and is without end testing the boundaries of her inventive muscle. Observe her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
