emotional wellbeing – Roksana Tales

Happiness in Small Things

The other day, at home, I found happiness in a bunch of bananas. I saw them and immediately felt happy. “Ahh! What beautiful bananas!” I said. They were so yellow, fresh, clean, and looked delicious. My son was watching me. He smiled and said, “Mumma, you get excited about such small things! You express your happiness so easily. So many little things make you happy. That’s very good!”

And he is right. I do get excited about small things. A flower, a beautiful smile, a bird, a kind word, a nice song, something fresh from the market, even a bunch of yellow bananas can make me happy. These little moments bring hope into my heart. They make my mind feel peaceful. But when my son noticed this little quality in me and said it out loud, that made me feel even happier. Sometimes, it feels very special when someone notices the way we are …

I think small things are not always small. A small kind word can become precious to someone. A small gesture can stay in someone’s heart for a long time. Simply noticing someone can make them feel seen. I notice many little things, words, expressions, movements, flowers, sounds, and moments. Perhaps that is why my ordinary days are often filled with little pieces of happiness …

What small thing made you happy today?

#roksanatales

Sukha

Happiness may not live in one place or one moment. Perhaps it is found in the spaces between letting go of the past, embracing the present, and trusting what tomorrow may bring.

Happiness lives in three places
In letting go of what was
In releasing yesterday’s shadows
And making peace with every loss …

Happiness lives in three places
In enjoying what is
In noticing the colours around me
The streets, the sky, the little joys I might have missed …

Happiness lives in three places
In trusting what will be
In believing that every uncertain road
May still lead me somewhere I am meant to see …

Happiness lives in three places
In letting go, living now, and trusting tomorrow …
And somewhere between the three
I found a little more peace within myself …

#roksanatales

Sukha: a Sanskrit word for happiness, ease, inner peace, and a sense of well-being

Now, tell me,
How’re you? How do you find your peace?

On Decluttering, Memory and Leaving Light Behind

I came across the idea of Swedish death cleaning today, and it stayed with me longer than I expected. Not because of the word death, that part feels inevitable and oddly neutral, but because of the tenderness behind the idea: easing the weight for those we love …

Margareta Magnusson writes about sorting not as an ending, but as an act of care. A way of saying, I see you. I don’t want to leave you overwhelmed. That makes sense to me. Deep sense …

Sorting through a person’s life after they are gone is a herculean task. Grief itself already bends the spine; belongings can make it heavier. Each object asks a question: Should I keep this? What did it mean to them? Am I dishonouring them if I let it go? I wouldn’t want my family to carry that weight on top of their sorrow …

The biggest declutter I dream of is invisible, yet massive: millions of photographs. Faces, skies, meals, moments, saved out of love, fear of forgetting, or the hope that one day they’ll matter again. I wonder if they will feel like treasures… or burdens. Perhaps it’s not about deleting everything, but about choosing what truly tells a story …

Then there are my words. Countless musings, half-written thoughts, simple musings, & reflections stored away for “someday.” I imagine my grandchildren, & great grandchildren, curious, gentle readers, finding joy not in everything I ever wrote, but in the pieces where my voice is clearest. Maybe my task is not to preserve all my words, but to organise them with intention, like letters rather than clutter …

And the coins. Oh, the coins! Little metallic memories gathered from here and there. Each one once felt like a discovery, a moment of wonder. I don’t want to lose that magic, but I also don’t want them to become meaningless weight in a drawer. Perhaps they deserve a story, a frame, a reason to exist beyond accumulation …

Magnusson says you don’t have to be old to begin. Even in your thirties, when drawers no longer close and closets resist you, it’s already time. I like that permission. It takes death out of the centre and places living there instead …

I don’t know how far away I am from the end, and maybe that doesn’t matter. What matters is this: decluttering feels less like letting go, and more like choosing what love looks like when I’m no longer here …

For now, I will begin gently.
Not with fear.
With care.

#roksanatales