Ive also started a little women's community !WomensStuff@lazysoci.al that is doing ok which makes me smile. A small daily happiness is my little treat food like a small bar of chocolate with a cup of tea.
Learn to love and let curiosity make you happy. That is the most important thing I can teach anyone. I have been physically disabled and in near total social isolation for 11 years. If I am cut off from this place Lemmy, I can still keep my mind occupied and engaged using my curiosity while only marginally less healthy for lack of interactions with others. If I were in prison, I would still have my curiosity. Even in solitary I can find ways to stay engaged with myself as a last measure. If I were confined like Hawking was with ALS, I would still be a curious explorer. My curiosity is how I avoid focusing on what I have lost or what I am unable to do. When I feel hurt I jump into a curious project. There are interesting curiosities in everything around us. None of us understands all of the fundamentals about the things that surround us in daily life. So find some junk and take it apart until you figure it out. When most people are board, like sitting around at a mall, I am people watching and trying to guess what motivates someone, their story, and where they are going. Or I can explore my entire science fiction universe I call Parsec 7 and think about what is happening with Bibble and other characters in a distant future living in an O'Neill cylinder around Alsafi in the next age of technology once biology is mastered as an engineering discipline.
You see, curiosity is universally grounding. If you are still alive with a conscious mind, curiosity is universally available to you as a refuge, so embrace it.
I've been toying with the ideas of existentialism (with a touch of absurdism) in my hard-fought battle against nihilism.
I've finally found some peace in the following:
The universe has no divine plan for us or our purpose
It is up to us to determine what gives our life meaning
And in thinking of this, I came to the following core aspirations of my existence (in no exact order):
Knowledge
Joy
Love
Activism
I do believe, as you said, that curiosity is a fundamental and uniting facet of humanity. It is truly remarkable what we can achieve, especially with the vast wealth of information at our fingertips. I have finally gotten back to making time for tinkering (both physically and philosophically).
I feel like I am rediscovering parts of myself that had disappeared into the void of monotony. Thank you for sharing your joy and curiosity. Your science fiction universe sounds wonderful. The fact that one mind can create such a thing is a wonder, in and of itself.
The rooster is dumb as a brick, but endearing anyway. When he's in the mood, and gets in my lap to cuddle, and all the stress melts out of him while I pet him, that's gold right there.
And the pet hen? She flicks her little tail on the arm of the couch and nestles in as close as she can to my side, and she does that sweet trill of contentment. How can that not bring peace and happiness?
Even the volunteer hen, when she comes ruuuuuuning up from her little spot under a tree when one of us goes out, and starts her little high pitched buuuk-buk-buk because she knows we're suckers and always bring treats, that never fails to make me smile.
Playing the guitar. I took up electric guitar during the quarantine, and was getting pretty good, then about a year ago i started fingerpicking on a nice acoustic that i got at auction for only $102, and I've become fairly obssessed. I've become good enough that i can sit out on the front porch and entertain myself by running through my growing repertoire of songs, and composing new songs and arrangements. What has surprised me the most wasn't the personal sense of accomplishment, it was how much it has greatly improved my mood and mental health.