Hellllooo friends!

So on a scale from 1-10, my day today was “not great” – rate that on the scale as you will.

But I got to leave work a bit early today and my evening turned out alright! I ended up napping for quite a bit after I got home, and had a few calls lined up that got cancelled.

Since tomorrow, I’m lowkey hosting a Law Clerk lunch with the other law clerks, I had to get ingredients to make my pasta dish, so I drove to Giant, blasted Haunted by TS, and started shopping. If I’m grocery shopping alone and not with my partner in crime Katie, then I kind of speed through it like I’m in a fast-forwarded montage in a coming of age film where the main character learns what it’s like to live alone for the first time in her life and has to deal with the realities of growing up. I can’t go nearly as fast when I’m with other people because then they call me out for “rushing them” and I’m like, but, I don’t have time to dillydally at Costco, I am on a mission and I need my 4 items and then leave this lawless land.

So I only needed three things, pasta, garlic, and heavy cream. And I’ve been going to this same Giant since I was 3 years old so I know every aisle in this store and where everything is located in each aisle. So I picked up my garlic, I picked up my pasta, and I was heading over to the heavy cream when I hear someone goes, “Sandhya!”

You know those hangouts and chance encounters with people who just add so much brightness and happiness to your life? Like talking to them makes you happy and feels like there’s nothing bad happening in the world, that your day instantly becomes better? We didn’t even talk about anything of substance – we talked about moving, about pasta, and how many ounces are in a cup (to figure out which size of heavy cream I should get) and it was a wonderful 10-minute interaction.

Then I came home and went to my friend’s house and we had a small gathering and played Clue. (I suggested Monopoly but apparently, people don’t want to play Monopoly with me anymore, like come on. I’m not that dramatic. I’m tired of being labeled as an aggressive player, I AM NOT AGGRESSIVE!)

And these spontaneous actions turned my boring and semi-bad day a little bit better. These pockets of perfect moments.

There are two posts that I saw over the weekend and I loved them both:

And lately I’ve been wanting to talk about this idea of radical amazement, but I haven’t really gotten a chance to do it (perhaps a future blog post?). But the idea is actually pretty great. Other people have summarized better than I have but basically it’s that sense of “astonishment, wonder, and awe about all existence.” It’s like taking gratitude to the next step.

You know those days when you’re just driving down the road, and the windows are down, the weather is perfect, and you look outside and you think, “wow this is a fantastic moment. Wow, look at those trees, they’re literally so beautiful, and wow, how lucky am I to be here to experience this moment!” ? I hope you have moments like that – I usually have them driving down this one street close to my house where there is basically a canopy of trees above the street. In Spring, the leaves are beautifully green, and in Autumn, there’s an array of fall colors.

I also tend to feel the calmest by water. If I’m by the water, then I’m immediately happy – there’s something just grounding and calming about being near water. So I feel a lot of my “radical amazement” moments there.

And how amazing would it be if every moment we had, every messy and every moment in nature we had, was this perfect moment that we can save in our pocket for later? (Hence, “perfect pocket moments“)

Needless to say, my chance encounter at Giant was like that. My hair was tied up and my eyeliner was smeared across my eyes because I just rubbed them in the car before walking inside the store. I was wearing the comfiest sweatpants and a comfy tank top and I wasn’t really caring what people were saying or thinking about me – because who cares? And then I run into an old friend and it was a GOOD TIME!

Imagine if we had those moments all the time – imagine if we created those moments for us all the time? How much happier would we be?

I hope you, too, get to have these moments and if not, create them for yourself! In addition to being present this week, tell me about your “pocket perfect moments” 🙂 Maybe start by making a list of “little things that make me happy” – like when you find a parking spot in a crowded parking lot, when someone you haven’t heard from in a while messages you and checks in on how you’re doing, or the smell of your clothes right after the dryer! Maybe if we can create these moments all the time, then we’d take ourselves a little less seriously and maybe even be kinder to ourselves, and other people in the process

If only I could coordinate chance encounters with radiant people every time I go grocery shopping. But alas, baby steps!

Until next time,

xo

Sandhya

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