20 Small Joys
A few things that made me happy in 2025
Hey y’all! Sending sunflowers from my corner of the world to yours on this final day of 2025. Welcome to my third annual Small Joys roundup!
1. Cinematic pep talks.
2025 was rough, y’all. So I started collecting movie pep talks! In addition to this all-timer from Treasure Planet, other recs include:
Tell me about your favorite!
2. Looking for clues to life in the movies.
If a film is a window through which we view life’s mysteries, can an essay be an investigation? Viewfinder is my new column at Bright Wall/Dark Room about looking for clues to your own story in art made by other people.
I’m so grateful I had the chance to explore three of my favorite films this year:
I wrote about the female characters of Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia.
I found new meaning in a memorable scene from Dead Poets Society.
I took a closer look at one of my favorite ghost stories, Personal Shopper.
This year Bright Wall/Dark Room lost a partnership that covered about half of their operating budget, and they could really use your support! If you’d like ad-free publications like BW/DR to keep going, now is a great time to support the future of independent film writing.
3. A favorite actor side quest.
Writing about Dead Poets Society inspired a Robert Sean Leonard “side quest.” I ended up watching a number of his movies and even discovered that he’d performed the audiobook for Bridge to Terabithia after popping his name into Libro.fm. (I successfully completed a Tom Cruise side quest during the pandemic and wrote an essay about the experience, which you can read in this anthology!)
If sticking with a particular actor isn’t your jam, you could also pick a theme! Selections like short-lived TV shows and vampire movies led me to some fun discoveries in 2025.
4. The healing power of game shows.
Over the course of my life I have nearly always appreciated the formula of a crime show to soothe my brain in times of distress. (Eternal shoutouts to my beloved Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler.) However, there were a few moments throughout this year where crime narratives felt a little too on the nose with the current news cycle, and this was when I found comfort in game shows.
Thank you, Colin Jost, for your deadpan humor in Pop Culture Jeopardy!, the only trivia show I feel like I’d have a fighting chance in.
5. No more doomscrolling.
I’ve cut back on phone use and deleted most of my social media earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean I think we should throw our smartphones out the window. (Lord knows where I would be without my maps app — not my destination, that’s for sure!)
A few more alternatives to feeds for your smartphone:
The Wikipedia app lets you bookmark stuff to return to later and even read offline, not to mention you’ll get a personal year-in-review round-up of all your reading habits!
A camera lens prism clip beats a digital filter!
The Little Free Library app can turn your city into one big scavenger hunt for books.
6. A shelf purge for the ages.
I finally did it! I took a good, honest look at my shelves and cleared out a whole bunch of books. Everything remaining is a good memory from the past, or a future I’m excited about. What to do with the others?
Pop them into a Little Free Library.
Donate them to your local library for fundraising booksales.
Bring them in to a used bookstore for credit.
Celebrate Jolabokaflod and give them as away as gifts!
7. Discovering out-of-print books.
Years ago, I wrote a story that was never published about a girl detective who searches for “lost things.” Sometimes if I’m working on something in the present, I’ll pop a related word or idea into the search function on my computer to see if I’ve written about it before, which is how I came across these lines:
Without you, the lost things would stay lost.
This seems to be the natural way of life — forgetting — which you make your business to disrupt.
In a curious way, this old story almost feels like a prediction of my new role as Lost/Found Editor at Split/Lip Press! Lost/Found is dedicated to giving out-of-print books a new home, and I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to step into an editorial position for this imprint. I love the idea of offering new generations of readers the chance to discover (and rediscover) old stories!
I’m deeply grateful for the community and support I’ve found at Split/Lip Press these last three years. (Just look at the kind sendoff I received last month!) I’ve been reviewing submissions this fall while finishing out the third and final year of my responsibilities as Marketing Director.
This imprint is very much an experiment, but I wouldn’t have it other way — I’m looking forward to seeing what Lost/Found’s future holds. Stay tuned!
8. Conversations about mystery and marginalia.
My interviews with writers often end up leading me to more wonderful books!
Talking to Sara Gran about her short story collection, Little Mysteries, sent me on a hunt for mysteries in the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style — and I found one, out just this year! Five stars to Antony Johnston’s Can You Solve the Murder?.
And my conversation with Naomi Washer about her new memoir, Marginalia, led me to go looking for strangers’ marginalia on the shelves of a favorite used bookstore:
9. Audio adventures.
A few audio rabbit holes:
Life Kit continues to educate and inspire me! Some favorite new-to-me episodes included “How to lead a more creative life,” and the interview with Sara Urist Green, author of You Are an Artist.
The Black Tapes celebrated its tenth anniversary this year! In this narrative podcast, a journalist and a paranormal investigator attempt to unravel the mystery behind a collection of unsolved cases. Great for X-Files fans, best listened to on good headphones or a late-night drive.
ICYMI keeps me up-to-date on internet culture without actually having to scroll any feeds myself (and I love when they ask guests about their earliest internet memory)! Some favorite episodes this year: “RIP MTV’s Catfish,” “Kendra Fell In Love With Her Psychiatrist,” and “Everyone Online Is Going Analog.”
I’ve also been listening to the radio more this year (don’t miss the accompanying zine!):
10. Less screen time, more game nights.
In the spirit of less screen time, a few analog favorites from this year:
Odd Pieces mystery puzzles are such a delight. The scene you’re building is a surprise — you find out what happens right after the scene on the box, one piece at a time!
‘90s Trivial Pursuit was a fun discovery at a library booksale this year! I don’t think you can buy it new anymore, but it looks like it’s available secondhand online. Turns out I had a little refreshing to do on my favorite decade.
Drawing From Memory is my new obsession. Without looking up a reference, can you draw George Washington? Pikachu? A pterodactyl? This was SO funny!
Godzilla Mad Libs, Murdle, and Sudoku live on the coffee table so I can go for them instead of my phone.
Check out my Recommendations list on Itch for more games, many of which you can download for free or a donation and print at home! A great example is Thousand Year Old Vampire, which I wrote about back in October:
11. A creative journey with Keri Smith.
I continued to explore possibilities for what a book can be this year, with Keri Smith as my guide! I came to This Is Not a Book and The Line much later than Wreck This Journal, but they turned out to be my favorites.
If you want to try something FREE that you can download and print right away, her 100 Ideas are still available online. These prompts inspired all sorts of things I wouldn’t have attempted otherwise, like making art with my scanner for an essay I wrote about McSweeney’s and writing as experimentation. 100 Ideas would make for a great New Year’s Resolution — try one every day!
Keri has stepped back from publishing and public life in recent years; I’m not sure what she’s up to these days (though a new edition of Guerilla Art Guide did come out just this fall). I’ve more or less exhausted her bibliography, and I’m so grateful for the creative odyssey she sent me on these last few years, so I sent her a short email this year just to share my gratitude and wish her the best. This inspired me to make an Exercise in Creative Gratitude zine for those who’d also like to think through how much an artist’s work has meant to them.
12. Note-taking as a way of life.
My Slow Art Day experience inspired me to start carrying a pocket notebook around this year. I’ve found that I look at the world differently now — like I’m searching for clues. I fill the pages with small observations, moments of gratitude, personal serendipity. (And also practical stuff, like shopping lists, reminders, ideas — going for a notebook instead of my phone cuts down on distraction.)
I adore Field Notes for this! And I know what I said about the Pilot Precise V5 last year, but I discovered ANOTHER Pilot that I love even more: Pilot Juice Gel Pen, .38 mm. Ohmigod.
13. Art as play.
Personally I’ve found that the joy of creation lies in exploration rather than skill. Pick a medium and have fun with it!
I’ve started collecting things that write in multiple colors, like these Koh-I-Noor pencils, this Ooly gel pen, this Camel pencil, and this Penco crayon.
The Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal has become my holy grail of sketchbooks. I was looking for something that could withstand a lot of multimedia use — ink, paint, collage — and these pages are cardstock, which is perfect.
Artmaking meets meditation in Lifelines FlowArt kits! Use the special markers to add dots to the page and create your own pointillism masterpiece. These are great for stress relief.
These art dice are great for giving yourself some parameters when you know you want to make something, but need a prompt to get the ideas flowing.
Creativebug continues to be an excellent source for art tutorials and inspiration. Check out Lisa Congdon’s daily mark-making practice or e bond’s class on personal map-making. No ads and even available for free through some libraries.
If you’d like company on your creative journey, here’s a list of some great documentaries:
14. Unconventional vending machines.
For art: Everyone’s talking about AI and I’m over here obsessing over Art-o-Mats, which are refurbished cigarette machines that spit out tiny works of (human-made) art.
For zines: Zine Machine is a physical zine vending machine that can be found at bookstores, art galleries, and festivals in the Upper South!
For stories: Alyson Mosquera Dutemple alerted me to the existence of the Short Story Dispenser, and it turns out they’re located all over the world — see if there’s one near you!
For memories: Someone in Arizona is walking around with one of my mine thanks to The Memory Vending Machine, which is probably where this obsession first began.
15. Zines forever!
This year I started making zines to inspire creativity and everyday adventures, and I can’t wait to share more in 2026!
I also published my annual zine roundup of newly discovered favorites:
16. Writing anything.
I cannot recommend enough having a little writing project that you just chip away at over a long period of time. I’ve been working on the same project every Wednesday night for most of this year, and having that consistency through times of turmoil can truly act as an anchor for your brain. (Shoutout to my Autofocus Digital Pass crew!) Even if all you ever do is get the manuscript bound at a local copy shop for yourself to keep, using your voice matters. It changes the way you experience the world.
If you need some ideas, I made a zine to help writers with brainstorming. I also recommend a word processor called Scrivener to anyone writing something longer than five pages. Scrivener provides so many different ways of looking at your project — a sidebar menu of chapters and scenes, a digital corkboard to visualize and plan, a full-screen and distraction-free writing mode. Also, it’s a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. I bought it back in 2012 and have been using it ever since.
17. More mail!
I started up a regular correspondence habit this year with aid and inspiration from the following:
I’ve enjoyed Rachel Syme’s writing at The New Yorker for years now, so I was thrilled to see that she published a book about letter-writing!
Who to send letters to? Love For Our Elders compiles monthly lists of older folks who could use a bit of cheer in their mailbox.
Want to send someone a homemade work of art? Try these watercolor postcards. (Use Portia Elan’s How to Make Marks zine for inspiration!)
Your envelope can be a canvas, too! Try these origami-inspired envelopes, keep up with the artists the postal service highlights via new stamps, or seal your letter with a cute sticker — I’m partial to Popcorn Panda myself.
Flow puts out new Books for Paper Lovers every year that’ll more than meet your stationery needs — stickers, envelopes, cards, wrapping paper, tiny notebooks, and other fun surprises!
Need a digital option? The Internet Archive has you covered with their goofy DIY “gif gram” creator, guaranteed to instantly make anyone’s birthday a little brighter.
On the go? I started carrying tiny cards with me to leave behind for other people to find. I decorate mine with flower stamps, but these are quite literally a blank canvas so there a lot of possibilities!
Print subscriptions are gifts for future you! Cut Me Up Magazine invites you to use its pages for collage and then submit your work for inclusion in the next issue. This year I also enjoyed Illustoria (check out the Blue Issue) and McSweeney’s Quarterly, whose most recent entry took the form of a trapper keeper.
18. Mindfulness.
To celebrate David Lynch’s legacy following his death earlier this year, his kids invited fans worldwide to join them in a group meditation. I’ve been exploring Lynch’s work this year, so I ended up checking out his book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, and joining a meditation group myself. One of the best ways I’ve found to get myself to stick to a commitment is to form a community around it.
Something that’s also been helpful for cultivating mindfulness is a regular yoga practice, thanks to Yoga With Adriene’s free 30 Day Yoga Journeys. (I got this idea from Erin Dorney, who wrote a whole book inspired by Adriene!)
19. Solace at the library.
Wherever I go in life, I find the library.
I place holds on all kinds of stuff — Frog and Toad, documentaries about artists, Magic Eye, a massive stack of cookbooks, mysteries set in Venice, novels by a YA author I loved as a teen, nature guides… Sometimes I just put a word into the catalog search bar and see where it leads.
When you go to pick up all your holds, you might try hanging out for a bit and people-watching, like I did back in June:
20. Community!
At the end of a meditation session this year, I wrote down something our group leader said:
If you feel a need for something, you’re probably not the only one.
It’s been so fun to pitch, host, or attend events in local art and community spaces like libraries, bookstores, record shops, and art museums this year.
If you’re in Connecticut, be sure swing by Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore for our first Write-in of 2026!
A closing note: When we went apple picking at the end of October this year, we walked past a field of sunflowers. As the season changed, the sunflowers had begun to turn their little faces toward the ground, but there was one sunflower I saw in the midst of the field that was still facing skyward, poking its scraggly head up toward the light.
Back in January, I wrote about the Werner Herzog penguin — how sometimes, the journey we’re on might look a little different than that of those around us.
Heading into 2026, I’m thinking about that sunflower. No matter what happens, no matter how terrible the news is or how hard things get, let’s try to soak up every bit of sunshine we can!
You are truly one of the most interesting and fascinating people I know. I love this glimpse into your world. It always inspires me to keep expanding as well as noticing what’s right in front of me.
What wonderful treasures this post holds. Bookmarking to explore all of these things in the coming year. So honored to have been able to contribute in a small way with my story vending machine post. Happy new year! And thank you for all the art!