The joy of nothing much

For years, I had been looking forward to my sabbatical. At my company, employees who make it to their fifth anniversary are rewarded with an entire month off. In Korean office life, where even taking a full week of vacation can feel like something you have to apologize for, a month away from work is almost mythical. Not a long weekend. Not even a generous week. A whole month.

When it finally arrived, I felt as if someone had handed me back the kind of school break I thought adulthood had taken away for good. Naturally, everyone wanted to know what I was going to do with it. Did I have travel plans? Was I going abroad? Was there somewhere I had always wanted to visit? “Not really,” I would say. “I’ll probably spend some time at my grandmother’s house in the countryside, then come back and stay in Seoul.”

Without fail, people looked disappointed. “At least go to Jeju Island.” “A month goes by faster than you think.” “You’ll regret wasting it.” …

A month of waking up without an alarm. A month of deciding, all by myself, how to spend my hours. A month of filling those hours with things I genuinely love. That alone was enough to make me excited.

Most of us—especially those of us whose days are mostly spoken for by work—rarely notice how much of life slips past us. By the time we make it through a day of work, we’re exhausted. Our minds are crowded, our attention worn thin, and there is little room left for anything else. And so we miss things.

The smell of the wind as the seasons change. The shape of clouds drifting across the afternoon sky. The sound of someone you love laughing. The soft foam on top of a cappuccino.

Small things, perhaps. But I have always believed that small things are what make a life feel rich and warm. More importantly, I believe that learning to catch them—and be grateful for them—makes me a little stronger.

So that is how I planned to spend my month. Paying attention. Taking my time. Gathering the small things I usually let pass me by. Writing them down before they disappeared. To some people, that may sound terribly boring. I can think of worse ways to spend a month.