Sunday April 13, 2025: A Small Moment of Delight

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1684:

Last Tuesday was a particularly satisfying day. The fog burned off early, it was sunny but not too hot. I had two conversations in the morning, one planned, one not, and in both cases I felt honored that the people on the other end of the phone felt comfortable sharing their anxieties with me and seemed in a lighter mood when the calls ended.

I suspect this also added to my good mood as I started my second walk of the day. And that is why as I noticed that I seemed to be having moment after moment of delight during that walk that I should talk about those moments today for my small moments of delight post.

First of all, as I discussed in yesterday’s post, when I take my second walk mid-day, I am finding that I am feeling quite strong, with growing stamina, so I walk faster and farther, which is very gratifying. But it was what I was listening to and seeing during the walk that brought me the different moments of delight.

First of all, I have been enjoying that the walks are getting back into listening to podcasts (which I only do when walking, reserving my audiobook listening to indoors while cleaning and chopping vegies.) On that particular day I was listening to the podcast What Now, hosted by Trevor Noah, the former host of the Daily Show. He was having a conversation with a man I’d never heard of before about the economy and problems facing young men in American society. As usual, one of Noah’s friends was part of the conversation, in this case, a young woman with several sons, and in light of having two grandsons (one 15, one 14) I found myself finding the conversation particularly interesting and insightful (or should I say delightful—smile).

Then, as the conversation ended, and I started paying more attention to my surroundings, I suddenly noticed what I think is an amaryllis hiding under a thick hedge that I pass every day on my walks. A pure moment of surprise and delight!

And I suspect that surprise and the fact that I was still feeling so good at the end of my 30 minute walk was why I cranked up some early Kelly Clarkson on my phone and sang along with a couple of my favorites.

All in all, a delightful walk.

Have you had any recent moments when you just felt a moment of delight, despite everything else that is going on? If so, please share with us now.

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