Smile this fall
A quick dose of 🍂, ☕, and 😀 + 🎬 The Geography of Bliss
The leaves are turning all beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red and crimson. Fall has arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
PSL
I ordered my first pumpkin spice latte last week. Not first as in first of the season, but first ever. I don’t hate them like Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal famously does; somehow I’ve simply escaped ordering one for more than two decades. (If you must know, I didn’t plan to order this one either; it was a spontaneous last minute choice as I was debating between a chai and a mocha at an indie coffeeshop).
When I gave it to my wife, I called it a PSL, using the shorthand for pumpkin spice latte that has become so common Starbucks even trademarked it. She didn’t know what PSL was. I love her. Clearly, our household is not among the more than 20 million that do. How about you? Are you a PSL fan or closer to Kai Ryssdal?
Smiles
Never underestimate your ability to make people smile. In 2011, David Hampton and Dennis Creel had an idea and designed and planted a smiley face on timberland. David was the co-owner of Hampton Lumber and Dennis was the company’s then-current timberland manager. Now each fall, as the larch trees turn yellow and the Douglas fir trees remain evergreen, a giant 300’ smiley face 😀 appears. You can’t not smile when you see this, right?
Here is a fun 1m03s video overview set to music:
Go deeper: Read more about this in The Oregonian.
Passing it forward
Someone recommended a show to me last year and said I’d really enjoy it. It was a documentary of sorts about the search for happiness with Rainn Wilson, the actor who played Dwight Schrute in The Office. I looked it up, but it was on Peacock, which we didn’t have at the time.
Fast forward a year and I decided to spring for Peacock to watch the Olympics this summer and — perhaps you can relate — I didn’t get around to cancelling the subscription in time and so we still have Peacock until the end of this month.
Why do I mention this? Because it’s been the perfect opportunity to finally watch this show.
🎬Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss
It’s funny, interesting, scenic (he visits Iceland in the first episode and another country in each episode), introspective and heart-warming.
If you have Peacock (or want to get it for a month for $7.99), I think you might really enjoy it, too. It’s only five episodes.
Here is the trailer:
And here’s the official Peacock show page.
If you’ve watched it or read the book The Geography of Bliss on which it’s based, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
That’s it for this week. I need to shift my focus and finish a grad school project due next week and hopefully find a little time to enjoy this beautiful fall outside, too.
Wherever you may be as you read these lines — curled up in a chair with a hot cup of tea, on the sidelines of your kid’s soccer game, or in line for a PSL — may you have a blessed day. Enjoy the colors of fall. Smile. And go forth in search of your bliss.
Be well,
-Bryce