09/09/2026
Four years ago. Same me. A life I was only beginning to imagine. 🤍
I was starting immersion week for my Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology at Penn. We were encouraged to step away from our normal routines and create space to fully immerse ourselves in the learning.
So I rented a little Airbnb in downtown Sarasota.
My husband moved me in—and packed my grandparents’ old hand painted picnic basket with food, snacks, and little comforts from home.
But that basket carried so much more than food.
Growing up, it came with us on weekend boat trips to the beach, packed with fried chicken and Pizza Lady pizza. Some of my most cherished memories are wrapped up in that basket.
Family. Sunshine. Connection. Belonging.
Looking back, those weekends were positive psychology interventions at their finest.
Long before I knew the research, I knew what it felt like to thrive.
And there I was decades later, with that same basket beside me, studying the science behind those experiences—and dreaming about how I might bring it into organizations.
How I might work with leaders and teams to ask a different question:
Not just, “How do we get people to perform?”
But, “How do we create the conditions for people to thrive AND perform sustainably?”
Four years later, I get to do the work I was sitting at this counter dreaming about.
And I found this photo completely by accident—while looking for a picture of a broken window at our Connecticut house that we now Airbnb. Another part of my current life I’m not sure this version of me would have predicted. 😊
Research on nostalgia suggests that meaningful memories can strengthen connection, meaning, and our sense of continuity between who we were and who we are becoming.
And research on savoring reminds us of the value of intentionally noticing and appreciating the good.
Maybe that’s why this photo stopped me.
We spend so much time looking toward what’s next that we can miss what has already happened:
Some of the things you once dreamed about have quietly become your life.
Today, I’m pausing long enough to notice.
And to savor it. 🤍
