Everyday Delights as a Map of Becoming
How a decade of small daily noticing evolved into visual moodling, somatic listening, and a new way of understanding my creative life
Whether we like it or not, we’re already a week and a bit into December and all that brings to our lives. With that in mind, starting on the 26th December, I have some different posts planned specially for this time of year. Read more at the end of this post! January is shaping up to be something special. If you’re curious about where we’re heading, skip to the end for a quick look.
Visual Moodling is simply the practice of letting an image lead the way. My visual spark today came from a double exposure of an Everyday Delight (read on to find out what this is). This is the conversation that rose in me as I sat with it.
Yes! I remember this delight, As I engage with the image, I am transported to how it feels to take delight in small things - colour, blur, sparkles of light, fresh flowers… I know exactly when and where I took this image. I grin to myself, feeling marginally more energised and hopeful than I did a few moments ago. That’s the power in this process.
A similar lift in my spirits happened in 2014. In the depths of writing up my doctoral dissertation, I began a 365 photography project where I committed to taking a photograph every day. Having a special moment of the day where I could switch off completely by taking and posting a photograph, lifted me out of the dreariness of academic writing and editing. Unknowingly, this daily practice of collecting moments of light, colour, texture and whimsical magic shaped the next decade of my life.
At the time I called this “Practicing Everyday Delights” and I loved that phrase (it’s still the name of my Instagram account). I gave myself permission to look for something small everyday to lighten the load: a recurring reminder to seek the tiny moments of delight, the fleeting beauty, the unexpected joys hidden in ordinary days. In a way, I had permission to stop and pay attention every day, even for a small moment. Over time, this practice became a way of thinking, as I reminded myself in 2020:
“I am a collector of Everyday Delights. By collecting my small, daily observations and the random individual moments of my life, I have unexpectedly and miraculously woven together a rich narrative for my life. And in a way, I live my life expecting to be delighted.”
The essence of my creative rhythm
I can trace everything I’m doing today back to that rhythm of noticing small things 11 years ago.
Those early delights lifted my spirits
They became the seedbed for listening to myself and my needs
They were beginning of the inner compass I’ve come to trust now
Collecting delights taught me that paying attention is not a passive act. It’s a choice. An attitude or mindset. A way of being. A way of orienting myself toward being alive and becoming more intimate with my own experiences.
It strikes me now that my double exposure images, made every week, are a continuation of that practice. Yes, they’re more layered, a more contemplative expression, but they’re rooted in that same impulse: to witness my life, to feel and to respond creatively.
This is why Visual Moodling feels exciting, like a natural next chapter for me. It gathers all these threads into an ongoing practice that honours my non-linear, sensory and intuitive journey based around visual art (the stimuli). And it’s why the Responsive Gaze is beginning to feel like an important part of my creative life because its a way of grounded, somatic way of listening to what images reveal.
Your creative rhythm …
Let today hold one tiny moment of delight: the warmth of a cup, the crease in a duvet, the sound of the birds chirping. If something brings the smallest sense of lightening or ease, let yourself feel and savour it for a second longer.
Or, return to the image above and find something in it that sparks delight.
Small delights stitch the larger story.
What’s coming for the rest of 2025 and into 2026?
December has arrived with all of its traditions, stresses, joys and end-of-year feelings. Here’s a look at what’s arriving over the next few weeks as we move through the season and into a new creative year.
26 December A visual collage of favourite 2025 fusions, each paired with a six-word story. A map of what mattered.
2 January A playful beginning for the year. A moodling forecast shaped by a found fragment from the future and a look at what 2026 might reveal.
9 January An exploration of how one fusion image can open many doors. A steady invitation into layered seeing and creative momentum.
16 January A collective moodling session where we follow the obvious thread together. An interactive way to enter the year through images and instinct.
If you’ve ever wanted to deepen your own practice of noticing, or to explore how visual perception can connect you back to yourself, you might enjoy The Alchemy of Listening. It’s slow, gentle, and entirely self-paced and based on the Responsive Gaze framework. A small delight, delivered quietly into your inbox.
