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 best way we stay—and why—has ripened. I’m fascinated by what sits beneath the veneer of aesthetics—how we adorn our areas, who we let in, and who we hold 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 might 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 life-style content material and the occasional private essay right here on Wit & Delight, I additionally publish weekly on Home Name, a Substack publication wherein 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 strategy 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 loss of life for my life-style 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 house. 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 each day life, considered one of my favourite indulgences is the act of daydreaming. Ever since I used to be a toddler, I’ve discovered myself wandering freely by means 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 reworked into the extraordinary. My daydreaming has given strategy to lucid dreaming and typically these pictures are so vivid, actuality pales as compared.
Once I gained the nickname “Spacey Katie” for wandering in my thoughts throughout tutorial classes, dance courses, and softball video games, I discovered 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 form of magic darkish that felt intentional. Like house had been made to return house to this a part of myself. I didn’t have my common escapes: my creativity felt stunted, schedules had 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 step by step opened as much as this name towards introversion, I stored coming again to how delight and a quiet house life intersect. It was the place I had given myself time to be taught to be OK with issues as they had 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)—had been doing extra for my temper and sense of well-being at house than churning away at venture after venture. I began questioning whether it is even doable to get pleasure from our properties if we don’t know methods to 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 means of the pleasure of merely being house.
This delight I’ve been chasing since 2009 was by no means going to disclose itself by means of self-improvement or cookie-cutter recommendation from {a magazine} on methods to adorn my home. In truth, I don’t assume there’s a guide in any respect. When designing a life well-lived, one must 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 strategy to design a life that appears like house. Sadly, this course of isn’t a path lined with candy-colored daisies however one which extra so resembles a stroll by means of Dying Valley.
I began questioning whether it is even doable to get pleasure from our properties if we don’t know methods to 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 means of the pleasure of merely being house.
This week on Home Name, I need to contact on the ability of our properties past the best way they give the impression of being. The inspiration for this publish got here from years of engaged on my house 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 house, what revealed itself stunned me.
What a Quiet Residence Life Represents for Me
Areas that stay fixed.
It’s necessary to have locations in my house I’m not actively updating—rooms I merely let be. It’s a follow that brings me each consolation and a way of peace. These areas, which embrace my bed room, kitchen, and workplace, have developed to mirror my altering wants and preferences. Whereas I nonetheless make occasional changes, I’ve determined to deliberately chorus from making important adjustments to those rooms until there’s a clear want for an replace. . . .
These areas have grow to be extra than simply rooms in my house. They’ve grow to be extensions of myself, reflecting my persona, values, and aspirations. By permitting them to be, I enable myself to understand the wonder 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 at present studying methods to play tennis and is without end testing the boundaries of her artistic muscle. Observe her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
