I want to talk about the habit of things. This is different from the habit of shopping — one can just hope and work on not letting it become an addiction. Wherever this comes from — a sense of insecurity, and clinging on to things things things, a thought that owning more things makes one happier, the competition for having the best stuff, everywhere.

Here, I mean something different: the habit of having certain things around, as opposed to experimenting and looking for new. I think this requires some gentle treatment, and a balance.

I love seeing people who are happy in their clothes — and I guess, in their skin, too. They might not own the best, generally (as if there is such a thing), but they have what’s good for them, and they are happy because they get to not admire their stuff, but actually use it. This is something that I felt distinctly when looking at a young woman on the street today. Could as well be my imagination, but she looked super comfortable in her simple clothes, and that added bonus points to her stylish look, even though she wasn’t wearing anything particularly trendy, or bright, and while being pretty, wasn’t astounding-looking.

I’m talking not only about clothes, of course, but of all the things that we use, in our daily lives. I don’t know, computers. If MacBooks work for me, I don’t think I’d try other ones. In a completely different price category, if one skincare brand works for me, how adventurous would I be going through many other products? Occasionally, maybe, depending on what my mood or interest in skincare is… But also I find it comforting to know my basics, and not breaking my brains in daily choices when I want a fallback. A lot has been said about decision fatigue and ego depletion that we face when we make a lot of micro-choices throughout the day. (This has been somewhat debunked, by the way, but we can believe whatever we want to believe.)

I’m sitting here, having a moment of appreciation for things that just work.

For me, an example of “good enough” are Moleskine notebooks. I know there are other and better writing pads to write on, but these just work, they do what I need them to do, and they are quite decent. The only decision I can make is whether I want the standard black cover, or something else, like a limited edition, or a fabric one. I went through about thirty of them in over a decade, and they’re there.

Water bottles, bags, backpacks, comfortable go-to shoes, pens, pants… Things that work, things that let us think about anything else, and stay humbly in the background, at the same time defining the tempo of our day, or our mood, or our sense of the habitual. The gentle everyday support strings of our life.