Biography

A common practice for many people is to create a bucket list of extraordinary, “mountain top” experiences to achieve over the course of a lifetime. While this is a wonderful practice, the truth is that peak, high intensity experiences do not make up most of our daily existence. Our lives are, in fact, made up of small moments that are easy to overlook in the busy rush of living. Pausing to notice and savor these small moments helps us to experience the everyday in a deeper way. Poet W.B. Yeats wrote, “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

In this class, we’ll encounter a variety of essayists, writers, philosophers and poets who celebrate the small joys and ordinary wonders of everyday life, particularly as they are experienced through the five senses. You, the students, will build a practice of noticing and documenting your own experiences of daily, sensory delight. Over the course of the semester, you will write a series of reflections in different genres engaging in what the poet Ross Gay calls “scrounging for delight” and honing your “delight radar.” At the end of the semester, each student will present to the class a deep dive into something small, yet profound, that enriches your own life.