One morning before school in late October, I was making lunches. The house was stirring; I could hear the kids shuffling around upstairs and going through their individual routines. One of the boys turned on the music. A melancholy tune by Post Malone filled the house.

We’d gone to a Post Malone concert that weekend. We left Blake’s baseball game late that afternoon and drove to Columbia and got to our seats just in time. We still talk about that night as one of the highlights of 2022.

Two days later, as I stood at the kitchen counter cutting crusts off bread, I felt a sense of togetherness even though we were all in different rooms. I also felt something else, a feeling I might not be able to name if it weren’t for a line in Gretchen’s Rubin’s book “Happier at Home”.

Rubin writes about how one Saturday she was unloading the dishwasher while her husband watched TV and her daughters played in the other room. She says she was hit with a wave of homesickness. She realized she was feeling homesick for the exact moment she was in.

I wrote a newsletter last summer about making peace with impermanence and it received more replies than almost any other newsletter. I continue to discover that joy is found in the right now moments, but those present moments continue to fade into the next. Is it possible to stay right here, right where I am all the time?

Being in the right now can make me feel so vulnerable, as I did in the kitchen that morning. It stirs up feelings I don’t always know what to do with, so I go someplace else: inside my head, to my overflowing to-do list, to Instagram, or to Netflix. But this time, I felt compelled to stay with the feeling and let it pass on through, as feelings do.

I also went on Amazon and looked up “Happier at Home”. The book came out in 2013, a whole decade ago. Rubin spent 10 months exploring ways to make home feel more like home, and I always intended to follow along and blog about it. But I never did. Blame it on my own perfectionism, inconsistency, and the fact that I was still living in a world of diapers, sippy cups, and toddlers climbing on the kitchen counter.

I honestly think I donated the book, probably during one of my decluttering sprees when I give things away that I later regret. So I bought the book again, and to prove I’m really doing it this time, I’ve already read chapter one and I’m going to share my thoughts about it next week.

Rubin started her Happier at Home project in September, but as with most things, today is always a good time to begin.

Join my unofficial book club:

I will document the process of my own personal “Happier at Home” project and I invite you to join me. But since this is an unofficial book club there are no rules. Here’s a link to the book if you want to check it out.

Also, click here to watch a short video of us at the Post Malone concert. It kind of makes my heart explode. I’m also sure that I’m singing the wrong verse.

                                                                                     Watch the video

Thanks for reading. I’m glad you’re here. I invite you to share Hello Friday with a friend.