25% off Le Creuset’s Halloween curiosities

Morning Blues and Unexpected Wisdom

Feeling a bit blue earlier this week, not cataclysmically depressed, you understand, just a sort of low-level glumness that left me staring into my morning cereal wondering “what’s the point?”

So, as I sat, wondering if 42 was really the answer, I was very glad to receive a short video talk by Julia Samuel, a psychotherapist of some repute, who’s website The Therapy Works Substack, I subscribe to. I’ve written about her before and sometimes her Monday morning videos speak to me and sometimes not so much.

This Monday just gone, she was spot on and she delivered her words of wisdom as she always does, in a very thoughtful and yet quite unassuming way. This week’s was entitled…

“Happiness is desiring what we already have.”

Not an original concept you might think. And I think you’d be right. Living in the moment and appreciating it, looking for the good in what you have isn’t new. But being reminded about it, and with a twist, was very good timing for me.

She prefaces it with the statement that she thinks it a simple but very profound idea. She says that “happiness is not about getting what we want in the future, or looking for something that will makes us happy (in the future). But instead, recognising that we can really desire and embrace and enjoy what we already have.” (in the now).

The Trap of Future-Focused Living

She continues that “modern life tells us to strive for more. More success, more things, more recognition, more followers…”, the list goes on. And she adds that “there is nothing wrong with goals, but being too goal centred can tip us, and our sense of well-being,  in the wrong direction”. And “that’s because, if our happiness is always just over the horizon, tied to that next achievement, of course we can never really arrive, because once we get one thing (goal achieved) where do we go from there?"

We have to have another goal that’s just out of reach, and around the corner, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve often found that having achieved a goal (particularly a big one) that feeling of achievement and elation is fleeting, short lived, and after that, there follows a sense of pervasive emptiness. A sort of “what now? I thought that this would make me happy”… not leave me feeling empty!

The Power of Pausing

To counter this she continues, saying “there’s a big shift that can happen when we pause, and notice what’s already here." She then lists some things to be grateful for, "the partner who makes us tea in the morning, the sound of our children’s laughter, stroking the dog, watching the wind in the trees outside etc etc." She concludes that “when we turn our desire to what we already hold, what is already in us, what is already available, we touch a deeper contentment.” She believes that “the equilibrium in us is much more stable, and this protects us from missing the joy of the present, because we’re not waiting for the future to unfold."

Wise words, for me at any rate. What about you?  

And I think she’s right. It’s not that goals are bad, it’s just that they’re not where happiness lives.

Happiness lives in the moments we already have, if we only choose to see them.

To Product:

Well, we’ve got to that rather absurd time of year when pumpkins appear everywhere and otherwise sane people start stockpiling sugary delights. Halloween, that most American of habits has sunk its sugary claws into us once again. As you’ll know if you’ve been reading my emails assiduously for a year or more, I’m not a fan of such antics. Having said that, in a conversation with Bryony Dyer (one of our suppliers) the other day, we did agree that there may be a reason to believe that it’s good for community spirit….? 

Yes….we weren’t sure either, but I’m trying to look at it positively.

Some years ago my friends at Le Creuset started to make one or two things for Halloween, and rather to my dismay it has grown now to include a Butter Dish, A Mug with a lid (new this year, and dear God, why do you need a lid on a mug?), a Shallow Casserole, a Deep Casserole, a Gravy Boat, and a Petite Casserole. Taking different colourways into account this totals 11 pieces in all.

What astonished me is that grown women (and men) will come in swooning over them, stroking the large casserole with the sort of reverence accorded a piece by Henry Moore.  Hideous and utterly tasteless are the words that come to my mind, (come to that I’m not that taken with Mr Moore's stuff either!) but I’m clearly out of touch with current trends and may be pitied.

That being the case, then you, who I’m sure won't be afflicted by such trifles, may want to avail yourself of these little works of art, little pieces of timeless cast iron and stoneware.

As questionable as the aesthetics of this seasonally challenged range may be, what can't be questioned is the quality of the products themselves from our French friends.

It's top notch as always - no compromises on quality and function despite the dubiously childish theme.

The stoneware is strong, oven (up to 200C) dishwasher, microwave and freezer safe, and the cast iron will remain just as tasteless for an entire lifetime. 

So, this week I’m offering you 25% off, but to get it you have to use the code TASTELESS25.  

You will find the whole pumpkin patch here!