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 way in which we reside—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 maintain 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’d 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 e-newsletter during which 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 technique to Home Name fairly but, I encourage you to peruse this physique of labor.
Under is an unique excerpt from a current 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 demise 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 residence. I hope you benefit from the essay and be a part of me over on Substack.
Home Name is a reader-supported publication. To obtain new posts and assist my work, contemplate changing into a free or paid subscriber. To all who’ve already subscribed, thanks!
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 via the realms of creativeness. What began with a unconscious want to assuage myself, at its finest, has confirmed fertile floor for a wealthy interior life. The mundane turns into magical, and the strange is reworked into the extraordinary. My daydreaming has given technique to lucid dreaming and typically these photographs are so vivid, actuality pales as compared.
Once I gained the nickname “Spacey Katie” for wandering in my thoughts throughout tutorial classes, dance lessons, and softball video games, I realized 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 currently, I’ve discovered myself making extra room for introversion. This winter was deafeningly quiet in all areas of my life, a type of magic darkish that felt intentional. Like house had been made to come back residence to this a part of myself. I didn’t have my typical 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 appreciate this vacancy was life-giving.
How Delight and Residence Life Intersect
As I progressively opened as much as this name towards introversion, I saved coming again to how delight and a quiet residence life intersect. It was the place I had given myself time to study 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 residence than churning away at venture after venture. I began questioning whether it is even attainable to get pleasure from our properties if we don’t know the way to discover pleasure in simply being. All of the paint colours, wallpapers, and patterns can’t be translated into an interior sense of permission to sink into your self via the pleasure of merely being residence.
This delight I’ve been chasing since 2009 was by no means going to disclose itself via self-improvement or cookie-cutter recommendation from {a magazine} on the way to adorn my home. In actual fact, I don’t suppose there’s a guide in any respect. When designing a life well-lived, one needs to be courageous sufficient to let go of the personas, masks, and armor they’ve gathered. Maybe releasing what isn’t ours and letting issues die that weren’t meant for us is the one technique to design a life that appears like residence. Sadly, this course of isn’t a path lined with candy-colored daisies however one which extra so resembles a stroll via Demise Valley.
I began questioning whether it is even attainable to get pleasure from our properties if we don’t know the way to discover pleasure in simply being. All of the paint colours, wallpapers, and patterns can’t be translated into an interior sense of permission to sink into your self via the pleasure of merely being residence.
This week on Home Name, I need to contact on the ability of our properties past the way in which they appear. The inspiration for this submit got here from years of engaged on my residence 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 residence, 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 residence 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 advanced to replicate my altering wants and preferences. Whereas I nonetheless make occasional changes, I’ve determined to deliberately chorus from making vital modifications to those rooms except there’s a clear want for an replace. . . .
These areas have change into extra than simply rooms in my residence. They’ve change into extensions of myself, reflecting my character, values, and aspirations. By permitting them to be, I permit myself to understand the sweetness and luxury of the current second with out the fixed want for change.
Paid Home Name subscribers can learn the remainder of this essay—and a lot extra. Assist this inventive endeavor of mine and change into a paid subscriber by clicking right here.
Kate is the founding father of Wit & Delight. She is at the moment studying the way to play tennis and is perpetually testing the boundaries of her inventive muscle. Comply with her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
