MICROJOYS

How to seek out life’s little delights.

Spiegel, an author and inspirational speaker, writes from experience on how to balance moments of grief and hardship with sparks of joy. The author shares the pain of her grandparents’ deaths, losing a classmate to tragedy, and friends she grew up with dying from AIDS. Death and loss are unavoidable, of course, but Spiegel is insistent that we should grow from tragedy and rediscover joy. Microjoys “often emerge from the muck” of despair, heartbreak, and personal chaos, and discovering them has brought clarity and great wisdom to the author. Spiegel inspires readers to find these gifts for themselves within a series of brief chapters that relate a variety of anecdotes about her everyday life—e.g., her neighborhood spice shop in Brooklyn, her beloved mother’s legacy of outspokenness and cake baking, a nature walk, or the excitement when she and her husband left Manhattan six months into the pandemic and moved into a larger apartment with a glassed-in sunroom. Embedded within these moments are subtle expressions of interactive love and appreciation as well as practical reminders that we are at our best when we accept life’s paradoxes and problems with hopefulness and grace. Spiegel concludes each chapter with a boxed “consider this” note as a reflection point, driving home the importance of savoring small yet magical moments. She implores readers to slow down and look around, and don’t be too self-critical. “You don’t always have to be all things to everyone,” she writes, “including to yourself.” Throughout these brief snippets, Spiegel urges readers to appreciate “that love and loss are close dance partners in this lifetime,” and “once we’ve journeyed the depth of loss…from the core of our being comes the capacity to seize every experience differently.”

A thoughtful reminder to appreciate the seemingly slight elements of life that can bring unexpected glee.