At the Poetry Pharmacy cafe in London

33 Joys

I’ve discovered in my time living

Hello!

In September 2024, I finished 33 years of living. The white in my beard stretches further, covering a surface area far more than I remember. But I don’t trust my memory, it has a way of phantomizing much of the time I’ve travelled around the sun on this wonderful space rock. Who knows how much white my beard displayed yesterday or last year or in the days before then?

While drafting this missive, I considered sharing 33 lessons I’ve learnt — like many often do on the interwebs. But I don’t have any. The only one I’ve learnt well enough to repeat is to seek your own joys. Let it pull you like a magnet, a leyline on the earth’s crust, an inexplicable tug in its direction. Trust it. Follow it. I don’t know where it will take you but that’s half the joy. The other half is in the thing itself. I don’t have any lessons to share but I’d like to share some of my joys.

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Here are 33 bits of joy I’ve found in my time breathing:

1. The word Apricity which means the warmth of the sun in winter
2. Smooth transitions (in life and in stories)
3. Standing barefoot in freshly mowed grass
4. A book (or story) that keeps you up at night
5. My wife’s patience
6. My iPad Pro — no device has ever felt like an extension to my being as this
7. Waking up well rested
8. Breakfast
9. A sky full of stars
10. The release of endorphins after a solid workout
11. Focused time
12. Bewildering, delightful confluence
13. Poha
14. The song Tum by Arpit Agnihotri
15. Silent nods between drivers and pedestrians
16. Discovering a new book by an old favourite author in a book store
17. Blue skies with lazy clouds
18. A long bus ride with an empty seat on the top deck, the one directly above the driver
19. Writing days and writing nights (and writing moments)
20. A smiling stranger
21. Learning to name something you couldn’t before (this month I learnt how to recognise Hawthorn Trees)
22. Artists
23. Autumn
24. The smooth stroke of a pen that knows you
25. The all encompassing click/clack of a keyboard
26. The complete audio-visual experience of using iPhones without silent mode
27. Earl Grey tea brewed at just the right temperature
28. Underlined sentences in a second hand book
29. Watching my wife watch TV
30. A well-composed photograph
31. A freshly inked pen
32. The right song at the right moment
33. Potential, fulfilled
34. Giving, just a bit more.

I hope you discover the things that bring you joy. And I hope you have the courage to follow them all the way.

Here is a picture I took this month I really like:

If you’re following me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen this picture. I made much of the above list, sitting in my favourite seat on the top deck of a bus I took from this very bus stop. My brain may or may not have been gently altered.

Until next month,

Seek joy,

Akshay

You’re reading Missives from an Island a newsletter by Akshay Gajria, a prize-wining writer, storyteller and writing coach. This newsletter is delivered to your inbox on the 30th of every month. You can also find Akshay on Threads, Instagram, and Medium. If you enjoyed reading, consider tipping him by buying a cup of tea (or three) here or buying his ebook (linked below). You can discover his work at akshaygajria.com

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