“When Love comes to stay, it’s all worthwhile.”

📖 The Grand Hotel of Feelings by Lidia Branković

I was reading this with my daughter this week. It’s an important part of life.

Her middle name is Joy. Partly because it makes me smile, but also because we love Joy Division, and her due date was Christmas Day. Joy felt like something worth naming.

We forget this sometimes. Life is for living, not optimising. Not performing. Just living.

Joy can show up in the smallest things. A look. A laugh. The light through a window. But we can also plan for it. Design it into our days. Create space for it. Surprise each other with it.

Connection can happen by accident. But it happens more often when we make room for it.
The rooms we sit in. The conversations we make time for. The pauses we actually allow. They shape how we feel more than we realise.

It’s Valentine’s Day, so everyone’s talking about love in the obvious ways. But maybe the real work is quieter than that. It’s designing moments where people feel seen. Held. Delighted.

Joy deserves more. Happy Valentine’s Day ❤️