Word Study

Sonder — The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

Tsundoku (積ん読) — The act of acquiring books and letting them pile up without reading them. Japanese.

Meraki (μεράκι) — Doing something with soul, creativity, or love — putting a piece of yourself into your work. Greek.

Fernweh — An ache for distant places; the craving for travel. The opposite of homesickness. German.

Ubuntu — "I am because we are." A philosophy of interconnectedness and community. Zulu/Xhosa.

Wabi-sabi (侘寂) — Finding beauty in imperfection and transience. Japanese.

Ikigai (生き甲斐) — A reason for being; the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Japanese.

Hygge (hyg-guh) — A quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality. The art of creating intimacy. Danish.

Flâneur — A person who walks the city in order to experience it. An urban explorer with no destination. French.

Kintsukuroi (金繕い) — The art of repairing broken pottery with gold, treating the breakage as part of the object's history rather than something to hide. Japanese.