- Beany Brain
- Posts
- Beany Brain #85: Celebrate the Wins + Books for Everyday Carry (Or, Winning with Books)
Beany Brain #85: Celebrate the Wins + Books for Everyday Carry (Or, Winning with Books)
Abigail Munday
March 17, 2026
Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!
Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.
Table of Contents
Photo by Abigail Munday
Celebrate the Wins
Putting things on paper, with my own handwriting that I actually really like, and in columns.
Something about it is very soothing.
And then I read this article by Maybelle Morgan in The Guardian about keeping a list of good things that happen and how that can reset your outlook.
She talks about being prone to catastrophizing (me raising my hand!), and how she found some money on the ground and decided to write it down as the start of a list of good things that happen to her. Then her list grew.
Morgan says:
From that day on I began to make a list of every single good thing that happened to me, big or small. A train pulling in just as I got to the platform. A neighbour bringing over a slice of cake. Discovering I had an umbrella in my bag on a rainy day. Being invited on a work trip to a place I’d always wanted to visit. All day, every day, I diligently added to my notes app. I began to notice that people were constantly going above and beyond to help me out. In making a list of all the great things happening to me, my brain began to hunt for more evidence of it.
When my alarm went off, I knew good things were going to happen that day because I had a bounty of proof of it. I went to social events alone, but now I assumed people were friendly and would be interested in chatting to me, and I to them; I had no reason to think otherwise because my list supported this irrefutable and concrete reality. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and more wonderful things came. Or were they already there all along?
Of course I’m still prone to fretting, but on trickier days I sit and reread my list – which stretches on in my phone – and it reminds me that good stuff is on the way.
If you catastrophize, if you like making lists, feel free to pause here and go start your own…
And if you’re still here and want to celebrate my wins/good stuff/fun/joy this week, here’s my truncated list that I can share with you:
A son’s milestone birthday.
Learning how to make microwave potato chips from a pen pal on death row and enjoying the chips and the fact that it’s a further point of connection that I can share with that friend (see above photo—I can’t believe they actually brown and crisp up, but somehow with microwave magic they do).
I discovered the sweetness and joy and depth of a George MacDonald book: At the Back of the North Wind.
I made jerk chicken. I love jerk chicken.
A friend made me an orange almond cake. I love her orange almond cakes.
In the last week and a half, I got to hold two different adorable babies! Their faces were sunshine personified.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Sonny Burton! He’s a 75-year-old man on death row who never actually committed a murder. We will take all the death penalty abolition wins we can get. My calls and petitions and letters and prayers do matter.
The author of the Guardian article keeps these good-stuff notes in her phone. I think I’ll stick a little notepad in my bag/purse for this.
Will I still catastrophize? You betcha. I mean, I still have the same brain in my same head.
Will I be more likely to focus on good things? I hope so. If my ADHD brain remembers that I started this list and that I wrote this post.
Fingers crossed. I mean neurons crossed.
Glamour Shot of Penelotree by Abigail Munday
Ha Ha Haiku
A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.
Yamada Zenjido (from jonellpatrick.me)
Photo by Abigail Munday
Books for Everyday Carry
I think (therefore I read).
Let me start again.
I think this article came by way of Karen Swallow Prior (English professor and author).
David Kern from Close Reads HQ starts his Substack post this way:
Remember when people who love books actually carried books around with them? Remember when people read books on subways and airplanes, in waiting rooms and lobbies, at playgrounds and in coffee shops? Remember when books marked the intervals of our lives, the static moments and quiet times in between being busy and being busy?
Ahem.
I still do that.
And sometimes I carry two books with me. Or one paperback plus my Kindle.
Now that I’m off Facebook for Lent, I’m getting more reading done. (And Abigail said it was good.)
I have to admit that I am still looking at my phone for news and daily games (Wordle, Connections, and Wordiply). Oh, and Duolingo too.
Anyway, David Kern has been curating a list of books that are for “everyday carry” that might be short, quick and easy to read, or easily digestible in small chunks.
He’s listed books in these categories: nature writing, philosophy, spirituality, fiction, and poetry. Check out his suggestions.
What keeps your brain busy and happy when you have a moment in a waiting room?
Let me know if you have a favorite “everyday carry” book. I’ll add it to my TBR (to be read).
Photo by Abigail Munday
Yeehawesome!
Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?
So much of what I consider yeehawesome has to do with food. The above photo was at our son’s birthday dinner out at a local Kanazawa Indian and Nepali restaurant. I had bhaji (onion fritters fried in chickpea flour), aloo sadeko (the most amazingly yeehawesome Nepali warm potato salad), and seekh kebabs (made with chicken, mutton, and green chilies). Oh my gosh. What a treat.
A gorgeous guide dog named Pickle at the Paralympics is being a good girl!
One of the most beautiful murals I’ve ever seen is in Kalamata, Greece, which incorporates the figs, grapes, and olives they grow there. I’d love to see it in person someday!
Quote of the Week
Not every stop has to be an experience. Some stops are just the road reminding you that you’re still on it, that the miles between here and there are real and require your participation.
Jeannine from the “Writing in the Dark” Substack
Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness
Wonderful Wednesday
Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.
Photo by Sally
Today’s Beany-full Summary:
Making a list of good things that happen can help us catastrophize less often.
A curated list of books for “everyday carry.”
Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?
Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.
If you’re enjoying Beany Brain, please share with a friend or seventeen at www.beanybrain.com. Cheers big time!