Remember Why You Love It
“Oh my god!” my friend exclaimed as she scrolled on her phone. “The news is even worse!”
She wasn’t wrong. Native Americans once again being oppressed by the U.S., transgender students put back into danger, plus all the leftover catastrophes-in-the-making that have marked 2017 so far.
She’s a smart cookie; she knows when to put away her awareness of social events and find solace in a book, a movie, drawing, walking, embroidering. But it occurs to me that I don’t necessarily have that skill all the time. So this is a reminder-to-myself through a reminder-to-you that it is not that hard to fill your brain with loving thoughts.
EspressoPerfecto.com, for Example
Michael York is possibly the perfect example of someone embracing their passion — in his case, the passion for espresso. His website is a beautiful tribute to everything about the drink: articles about caffeine content, recommended beans and machines, you name it. All of it is unashamedly enthusiastic, like any geek should be: I love this! Do you love this? Let’s share what we love about it!
One of the ways that caught my eye on his blog was “51 Scientific Reasons Coffee is Healthy.” While he does make the list out of verifiable studies, it’s still a personal list, and you can tell (I don’t think that female-bodied espresso enthusiasts would be quite as enthusiastic about number 49: “Perks up sperm!”).
That doesn’t matter. What matters is that by the end of reading this list, I wanted an espresso, and I know it’s not nearly my favorite drink (pour-over Mexican Kulantik with two spoons of sugar, that’s my vice). But his love for the drink is infectious; I can only imagine that when Michael gets discouraged, it’s not just the drink that perks him up — it’s things like this list and this blog that come to mind with every sip.
What Do You Love?
My friend, for example, shares with me a passion for notebooks. Natasha has looked on tolerantly as we fawned over the grid layouts of sketchbooks in stores like kids in a toy store. If we played a “50 Things We Love About Notebooks” challenge game, I bet we could fill the list in about three minutes, if not less.
And that would be a lovely list (in a lovely notebook, of course). So what do you love that much? Your kids? Your pen? Your car? Your state? Winter campouts with your wife?
Whatever it is, this might be the time to get out a pen and some paper (if you need a notebook recommendation, just ask me) and make a list of what you love about That Thing. It’s a reminder that, with all the bad out there, good still exists, along with that thing you love.
Hang on to it. You’ll need it in the years to come. I suspect, if you wanted, Michael could suggest an espresso drink to accompany it. But take the time to remember why you love it, and that will bring it closer to you when times are hard.
