💬 Sunday Reflections #40 (the secret of life)
Plus the April round-up and May events you can find me at
Hi! This is Leyla from A Day Well Spent, a newsletter seeking pathways to more purposeful living.
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Welcome to Sunday Reflections ☕
For new subscribers, welcome to our twice monthly gathering! This is our intimate and friendly space for community and accountability. And the last Sunday of the month (I know I’m four days late…) is always a juicy one.
How it works
On two Sundays each month I pose a prompt or question which we discuss (and say hi) in the comments. Topics tend to cover self-empowerment and personal growth and these regular check-ins allow us to share our wisdoms and get to know ourselves and the other members of the A Day Well Spent community better.
Feel free to have a browse through previous Sunday Reflections to get an idea of the stuff we talk about.
Before we begin, the April round-up
In case you missed them, here are all my published pieces from the month in one handy list.
Serial language learner, lifelong journaller, TV host and entrepreneur, Jo Franco, shares her day well spent by answering my 15 quickfire questions.
It’s a good’un.
Eight years ago I read a book with a title that promised to change my life. It wasn’t about where to find happiness or how to pursue a more fulfilling existence. It was a book about tidying up.Â
And it did change my life. It transformed both my internal and external landscapes and how I view the world of things to such an extent, that I don’t recognise the person I was before I read this book.
I wrote about how decluttering my home in the pursuit of ‘less’ changed the course of my life.
3. Digging around with Leyla Kazim
This came to you via award-winning garden designer
who noticed I often made garden and growing references, so she asked if I'd like to write about this.Jo asked me a bunch of questions about my love for gardening and I answered them. No one has ever asked me to write about this even though it's such an integral part of my life — it was joyous to share a side of me people don’t often see.
4. Our first community online meet-up happened
And it was pretty great. There will be more.
And how knowing this doesn’t make you ‘fussy’ or ‘difficult’.
A big WELCOME to new community members
Should you join this community and leave a message when doing so, it would be a lovely thing to read and I’ll be sure to share it in these monthly round-ups.
Welcome to Sara, Gary, Kathleen and all other April new joiners!
May events you can find me at
There are a few fun things happening this month. You can find me at the following UK events — if anyone will be at any of these, be sure to come and say hi!
Food Wisdom at Charleston Literary Festival (Sussex), Thurs 16th May
I’ll be chairing a talk with chef and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and award-winning food writer Bee Wilson to explore the moral, ethical and health choices we’re forced to make about food every day.
Hay Festival (Hay-on-Wye, Wales), Fri 24th May
I will be interviewing medical doctor, author and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken about what he learned from making the BBC Radio 4 series Fed.
It was an 8-parter looking at why we eat what we eat, where our food comes from, and the forces at work that we don’t necessarily know about. It’s very good.
Cooking, Eating and Feeling through the Seasons at British Library Food Season (London), Sat 25th May
I will be chairing a talk with internationally bestselling author and podcaster
and award-winning food writer, cook and presenter Angela Clutton for a conversation about food, life, and the connections that come from being led creatively, mentally and culinarily by nature and the changing seasons. I can’t wait!My past two weeks
I’ve spent the past two weeks staying with three farming families and working on their farms in central Portugal. It’s for my future self (see interview with Jo Franco above — I’ve been quoting this phrase a lot).
It was kind of amazing and involved lots of special moments. Including sowing potatoes, planting out vegetables, clearing land, riding on a tractor, going to market, hiking, foraging herbs, milking a goat, making cheese, discovering new fruit, learning about herbal remedies and lots more. Plus there was quite a lot of drama…
I will be writing about the past two weeks soon. And apologies for this post coming to you late but — farm — is why.
Sunday is for awakening the mind, body and spirit 🧘
Now let’s begin.
Today’s topic: the secret of life
