I can see (a little more) clearly now
Moments from my wild and more settled life (June 19-26)
Hi friend,
If you’re new here: on Sundays, I send a collection of mini memoirs from my life in the UK. Each weekly dispatch is filled with stories and things I’ve noticed—at home, in books, on my walks, in the world, and within myself. My hope is they feel reflective and calming, and inspire you to notice more in your own life. Writing them certainly helps me notice more in mine… 🕯️
Friday, June 19, 2026
It’s 8:30pm and I’ve had the most incredible day off with my friend Sasha. We went out for a nice long breakfast (with HUGE pastries for dessert). We tested out a new sauna/cold plunge spot called Derby Wild Sauna (would recommend to any locals, and it was only £13 for 75 minutes!). We picked up some food to make a “picky bits” dinner—a term the Brits use to describe casual, no-cook meals. Think: tapas laid out on a big grazing plate. And now, we are watching a movie and grazing on this big plate of food on the couch. My old couch from The Lighthouse, in fact! It now lives in her living room.
She’s just paused the movie, and starts to say: “Should we…”
“…have dessert!?” I finish.
Then Sasha bursts into laughter, and so do I, when I realize what she was actually going to say. She was going to ask if we should go for a walk—something we haven’t done today. We both know we “should”… but we don’t want to. It’s hot and humid. It’s been a long day. We are relaxed, and just want to keep relaxing.
Sasha goes into the kitchen and brings back two bowls of vanilla ice cream.
Saturday, June 20, 2026
We’re in Sasha’s car, driving down the highway (or “motorway” as they call it here) toward London. We put this little friend date in our calendars months ago, and now it’s finally here! But it’s going to require a lot of driving: 2 hours there, 2 hours back, and then I’ll get in my car and drive for another 2.5-3 hours to get home. It’s a good thing we both have a lot of experience with road trips, because we know what will help pass the time: music.
We’ve been friends for 8-10 years now (any idea what that number really is, Sasha!?) but it was only in the last couple that we realized we had a lot of the same music taste in our teens and twenties. Makes sense because we were born in the same year… but then, we also grew up in two different countries.
Now we’re finding our old faves, singing along, and swapping stories about what some of these songs meant to us. “Text me that one!” she says more than a few times, so she can add them to a playlist she’ll need later this summer. We’ll be dancing to these songs in August. But for now, we just keep singing…
Sunday, June 21, 2026
After breakfast, Tall Man asked what I want to do today. He cleaned the whole house, did all the laundry, etc. while I was away, so we could have a full day off together. Then he listed off some options, and one stood out. “I want to go to the beach.”
On the drive there, I tell TM that I feel discombobulated.