Creature Comforts N°12
Your weekly newsletter coming in to slay the Sunday Scaries! Replenish and reset yourself for the week ahead, and why not lean on your journal for support?
Happy Sunday, Creatures!
How’s your weekend been so far?
It’s been a rainy little season here in the San Gabriel Valley, which has blessed us with the most incredible local bloom I’ve ever seen. Every corner of my neighborhood sparkles with a new color than it shone in winter. Bougainvilleas are exploding in magenta. Canopies of wisteria are coming out of hibernation, dripping down like violet and lavender gemstones. Jasmine arches are at their fullest point of bloom, wafting floral all over my backyard. It’s a natural scent so special, so rich and intoxicating, even Gucci can’t bottle it.1
Spring brings flowers and, with them, the compulsion for a personal rebirth. I’ve spent the past two weekends cleaning and clearing. So far, I’ve scrubbed my bathroom tiles, dusted the baseboards, disinfected doorknobs (I’ve been sick), refreshed my closet, threw away useless paperwork, deleted a bunch of old bookmarks on my browser, archived my phone’s photos, and unfollowed some people on social media.
Many of us occupy two planes of existence: one in the physical realm and one in the digital. It makes sense, then, that spring cleaning in the year 2024 needs to include a bit of tidying both physically and digitally.
I'm not sure about you, but my digital life gets chaotic real fast if I don’t periodically clean it out. Perhaps it’s because I have hoarder tendencies, or an artist brain, or an inclination toward research and analysis. One day, I’m innocently bookmarking an article on my Monday lunch break, probably about eclipse season or George Saunders, to read later in the day, and the next thing you know, I have 43 new bookmarks by Thursday.
Photos are even more intense. How many photos do you have stored on your phone? Why?! Why do we need that many photos in our pocket? I’ve probably got around 4,000 pics on my phone right now. Time to purge, my friends. It’s time to purge.
The Problem
The problem is that purging takes time. Not many people these days have spare time—or do we?
The Solution
The solution? Make time. Even if you have a full-time job, kids, cattle, volunteer on weekends, or belong to a book club, you can make a tiny shard of time. You can squeeze in a 15-minute task, especially when the task will free you from some baggage. I believe in you.
Now go forth and have a (hopefully) lighter week than last. I’ll talk to you next Sunday!
XX
CZ
P.S. Thank you for being here ♥︎
This Week’s Journal Menu
Reflection: Read the following quote and then jot down your opinion about it. Do you agree or disagree?
“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.”—John & Lyn St. Claire Thomas2Temp check: How’s your body feeling this week? Any changes? Maybe that irritating bug bite finally healed, or you slept on your neck weirdly. Scan your body and write how it’s feeling in your journal.
Life Requirements, Part II: Last week, we talked about figuring out what your “requirements” for life are.3 If you missed that, here’s the link. Go check it out, and then come back for part two! If you already did that, read on. My friend
commented that one of her requirements is always having dogs. I agree—dogs are such special companions! Whatever yours are, let’s pull them in for a closer look. I’ll refer to your requirement as the “thing” for these so you don’t have to read that long R word 10 more times. You’re welcome.What feeling do you get from this thing? Here are a few possibilities to get your wheels turning:
Love
Grounding
Inner peace
Connection
Excitement
Adventure
Hope
Comfort
Creative expression
Companionship
Bliss
Camaraderie
Inspiration
How can you express gratitude for this thing? In my experience, gratitude has a wild way of multiplying happiness and making a good thing even greater. If your thing is dogs, buy them a special treat or take them to a new place to explore and run around. If you’re a student and your thing is painting, express appreciation to your favorite art teacher. If your thing is water, take a long bath or write a love letter to the ocean. You’ll have to get creative because everyone’s thing is different.
If you need some ideas for ways to express gratitude, please comment below or message me your life requirement(s), and I’ll give you some ideas!
Craving more?
Peek into peoples’ journals, get extra journaling tips, or pick up some more comfort in the Creature Comforts Archive. Paid members also get special access to the Secret Garden, a brand new monthly digest of inspiration, creative tips, journal prompts and special strategies for feeling your best (or at least a little better than before).
I’ve never been able to find a store-bought perfume that perfectly emulates the smell of real jasmine flowers, though Gucci Flora Gorgeous Eau de Parfum does smell quite lovely! It has Mandarin Essence, Grandiflorum Jasmine, and Sandalwood.
This quote is from a great little book my mom gave to me: A Guide for the Advanced Soul by Susan Hayward. The book instructs readers to “Hold a problem in your mind / Open this book to any page / Your answer will be there.” I use it often.
One of my Life Requirements is having quiet time alone to write. It’s my heaven.
The purge is so liberating. I have 17,856 photos on my phone and 587 videos despite doing a big purge rather than upping my storage cost recently. As I age, I worry about leaving the clean up for the children (an what they might find!) so I do try to keep at it.
So many great quotestack options! Wonder which I'll choose...