Happy List for July

I love keeping a happy list as a running habit—and it's good for you, as studies support and we all sort of instinctively know.

Salience is crucial within your brain because you are constantly sorting, details are crucial to me as a novelist and as a person, and overall I just love remembering all the good, because I'm a sappy optimist when it comes down to it. In my eyes, Words Like Silver is great because it highlights the beauty of everything and how lit strings us together to do it. So, some tidbits from my notebooks:

July

1. Outdoor shower!!!!!! Always!!!! But specifically the one in Canada
2. Holding a dog like a baby
3. The taste of fresh air when you're getting out of a stale car mid-road-trip
4. Moment of hope when opening a fast food nugget carton and then, thankfully, they are all extra-crispy
5. The second half of a long book
6. The exhaustion and relief of sinking into a hotel bed after a long day
7. Arnold Palmers
8. Stranger complimenting sneakers
9. My mom saying "Aren't those flowers so pretty?" every time she passes them
10. My parents being very much in love
11. Selfishly, being home and having groceries I did not pay for
12. Related: raspberries (my body needs more berries)
13. Mom's cherry-date smoothie recipe
14. Working and having someone bring you lunch
15. Sitting on front porches
16. I know they're terrible for the environment but a chilled plastic water bottle just hits like nothing else
17. Defusing a toddler and avoiding a meltdown just in time
18. Finding an excellent stick for s'mores for a kiddo
19. Realizing there are many books in a series you're loving
20. Leftover burgers the next day
21. Hearing from a friend you haven't talked to in a while
22. Conversations that feel like no time has passed
23. Baiting a fish hook and remembering sensations from childhood (that moment of remembering the world (and all you can do in it or connect to is very, very big)
24. Related: needlepointing and other hobbies from a very crafty childhood
25. Dog head in your lap (realizing now many of these are dog-related)
26. English breakfast tea / the whistle of the kettle being ready
27. The way sound carries across the lake
28. Watching fireworks
29. The scent of men's body wash
30. Sleeping in a big bed after being in a twin bed for a beat
31. Successfully navigating an (unintentional) obstacle course in the dark because you don't want to wake anyone up
32. Getting the first good picture with a friend in a long time
33. A worn-in hat
34. Used bookstores with books priced for $1
35. Bonding with strangers in airports (when you're in the mood to)
36. Creativity on a giant whiteboard
37. Drip diner coffee
38. Salvaging an overweight bag
39. Related: packing a check-in perfectly to 50.0
40. Fancy water refill stations
41. Any beverage in a beer mug
42. Baby in a teddy bear costume
43. Driving through the Appalachian Mountains
44. Cheap flights
45. Playing Monopoly Deal
46. When you're on a hot streak in a game and beating your entire family (hahaha)
47. Sitting on a dock and getting Otis Redding stuck in your head
48. Driving the boat
49. Parking the boat perfectly
50. Sweet Thai chili wings
51. Dinner in a biker bar
52. Tiramisu
53. Cold eye mask on when you have a headache
54. Loving a place so much you are deeply sad to leave it
55. Writing in the hotel ledger
56. Nothing to do but tan and read all day
57. Sun under your skin
58. Tan lines that did not turn into a burn
59. The Chartreuse Goose
60. Being ahead on scheduled work
61. Crossing off the bucket list
62. Friends you can just be quiet/default mode with
63. Wandering Port Hope solo
64. Kiddo drawings
65. Chances to do something helpful for a stranger (makes us all feel good)
66. Going days without looking at a screen
67. Napping on a daybed
68. Biiiig family breakfast
69. Listening to an audiobook while doing the dishes
70. Book-a-day cadence
71. Unsweetened matcha latte actually being unsweetened
72. Snagging a charger-adjacent spot at an airport
73. The moral superiority of dawn patrol surf sessions
74. Reading a trashy book on a plane (said with love)
75. A dog coming home from getting bathed with a little bandana around their neck
76. Resurfacing old notes from family members who have passed away
77. Making reunion plans with friends
78. Wearing a hoodie with the hood up
79. Falling back in love with an item of clothing stored since high school
80. Obsessing over a new workout song
81. Marking a book “read” on my tracker app
82. The ritual of getting ready for an event
83. Sweet tea in the South
84. Grey’s Anatomy on in the background at my parents’ house
85. “Good question.”
86. A moodily lit cocktail bar (better if steak frites are involved)
87. Bourbon kick
88. Plotting a novel on a plane (many happy list items related to planes)
89. Fresh sheets
90. Being in the hammock when there’s a breeze
91. That perfect level of sore that lets you know you worked hard but aren’t in pain.
92. Thunder and black skies
93. Sleeping porches—practically outside
94. Recreating wall art to mimic your favorite places
95. The every-so-often realization I finished a life dream and will never feel that “before” pressure ever again
96. Noise-canceling headphones when you dearly need them
97. John Steinbeck??
98. When a friend says they read a particular blog post
99. “Thought of you” texts
100. Sending “thought of you” texts
101. A shelf of full notebooks
102. When you’re so covered in dirt/mud on a hike that you give up and just go with it
103. The caffeine starting to work when you’re exhausted
104. Ballet lines
105. Floating in the ocean
106. Early bedtime
107. Being woken by the sun
108. Lei on a friend’s birthday
109. Watermelon when it’s hot out
110. Live bluegrass band with a fiddle
111. Being up for a long time in the morning then forcing yourself back to bed because you need the hours
112. Sleepovers!
113. Pizza & a beer after an afternoon hike
114. Wandering BookEnds on a slow morning
115. Finally having an air-conditioned car
116. An unreal sunset on a drive home
117. When an ocean dip flashes you into that “wow, I can’t believe I live here” reflection (happens frequently)
118. Roadside lime stand in my neighborhood
119. When your favorite shorts/sports bra/whatever is back in rotation from the laundry
120. Lucky timing
121. The cat who waits outside my door every morning
122. How kind everyone is to strangers & neighbors when preparing for a natural disaster
123. Hearing from people you never hear from
124. The creative buzz of working on something flow-state all day
125. My disco ball
126. A drive across the island (most times)
127. The encouraging “mindful” notes on the whiteboard at Waialua General Store
128. A high count reading month
129. Scrapbooking for an afternoon
130. The smell of lakewater
131. Apples
132. A shower you have been deeply looking forward to
133. Dinner with family friends you rarely see
134. An evening tea catch-up
135. Blogging from my phone
136. Getting a year-overdue errand done (through no fault of my own here, promise)
137. Momentum
138. The chill satisfaction of assembling furniture
139. Getting a book in the mail
140. When the neighbors remember to turn off their lights so my studio is actually dark enough
141. Passages you have practically memorized
142. Spicy ahi grocery store sushi
143. Thinking of my grandma whenever I make a grilled cheese or see yellow roses
144. Going to bed early on a Friday night because the week’s wiped you out
145. Knowing partway through a new book that it’s going to be a favorite
146. Writing a chapter (or paragraph) and just knowing it’s going to make it into the final version
147. Sunset over a mountain (or some cliffs)
148. A bonafide alarm clock instead of a phone
149. Anticipating a dress-up event
150. Laughing so hard you can’t breathe (obviously)

A sensory lexicon—not quite a happy list, but close.