How can we savour our lives in 2024? I started with a list ... | Anita Chaudhuri

Gratitude journalling leaves me cold, but Ross Gay's delight practice' turns out to be exactly what I need to cope with this whole being-a-human-in-2024 thing

No doubt about it, these are dark days. I'm writing this from the west of Scotland, where at this time of year there are only brief glimmers of daylight before twilight descends again. Then, of course, there is the metaphorical darkness of current news events, inescapable wherever you live.

I was feeling pretty bleak about this whole being-a-human-in-2024 thing until I read about an intriguing idea from Catherine Price in the New York Times. She writes about the American poet Ross Gay and his essay collection The Book of Delights, in which he challenges himself each day to document one frivolous, quirky or downright strange thing that provokes joy. Conducted over the course of a year, it's a gloriously unpredictable compendium of observations and celebrations of a life lived with full attention.

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