Ask game!! Name 5 things that make you happy then send this to the last 10 people that reblogged something you posted!!
My cat! Though I suppose she's not a 'thing.' She's so shy around other people but with me & my partner there is no more cuddly and social baby in the world. We suspect she was raised in a household with dogs (we got her as an adult, 3 y.o) and it seems to have rubbed off on her: she loooves aggressive pets and belly rubs exactly like dogs tend to and she gets along with dogs far better than other cats or humans. Even when we're doing a bit of roughhousing she never ever uses her claws and she does the gentlest of bites; she's the sun in the sky to me.
Doing stuff with my hands. I mean anything from washing the dishes to peeling fruit or digging in the garden; I find a special kind of peace in being able to stay in one place sitting or standing and getting some task done. Most of my work mental and has no tactile element to it, so handiwork offers grounding and frees up my thoughts while I'm engaged with it. I imagine this would've been a very useful trait to have 20,000 years ago.
The self-directed research I do for projects. Including my thesis of course, but I love to do historical research for any work or whatever because I get lost in it like nothing else. It's a fun hobby and my vocation. Writing history is, I think, my way of expressing my love for the world by adding to the tapestry of our story. Learning new things is fun, and integrating new ideas into my own knowledge is a special little brain teaser puzzle I can't find an equivalent for anywhere else.
Nature walks; my soul is made from them. I was born on a tiny island and there wasn't much for my mom & I to do for fun but walk around in the woods—so we did. I miss living close to the mountains and the ocean, and without one or the other I feel somehow uprooted.
A good hearty stew! Really any good, non-dessert food that fills you up and makes you just want to nap. I think that the ideal life is one in which we don't have to take such a sacred thing as meals in haste and can enjoy them slowly and fully and as a moment to pause. There's this fantastic Irish beef stew recipe I got from of all things HelloFresh and I dream of making it more often.