Notes on JOIE with Ajiri Aki

It’s officially August! The beginning of the end of a long and hot Summer. Here are a few joys and beautiful things I recently encountered. Hope something inspires you. (Sorry for the strange formatting. I wrestled with it and then gave up.) Reminder to close the computer when you feel blocked, stuck, or just tired. I have been knee-deep in writing my next book, but spending too much time staring at my screen, stressing out, and overthinking everything left me feeling completely uninspired.

Paris is hot, hot, hot! I would normally tell you to run to a museum to cool off, but I’m learning that not every museum has proper strong air conditioning. Some have even closed certain floors or adjusted their opening hours because of the extreme temperatures. Below is a selection of a few summer exhibitions, but I highly recommend checking each museum’s website before you go to buy tickets and confirm opening hours.

As Paris settles into what promises to be a very long heat wave, my mind has already drifted to cooler mornings, slower days, and the beauty of Provence in the fall. So I wanted to pop into your inbox with a quick reminder that we still have a few spots available for The Good Life Retreat this autumn. If you’ve been curious, here are a few questions you might be wondering about: What is The Good Life Retreat?

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I wanted to start a new series sharing the small joys and moments of beauty I encounter throughout the week. The first day of June feels like a good time to begin. And I’m a bit of a nerdy list lover, so a running list of 5-7 joys and beauties will be fun for me. In an ideal world, I would publish it every week. Realistically, it may be every other week, but we’ll see what happens.

Whew. It’s been a minute since my last Joie Review. A lot has been happening, and I’ve found it harder than usual to carve out the time to sit down and write these, even though I genuinely enjoy it. In a recent conversation about this, my friend Charli pointed out something very obvious. These reviews tend to run long because I try to fit everything in, which means they take longer to write and, probably, longer to read. Notes on JOIE with Ajiri Aki is a reader-supported publication.

Winter felt especially long this year, grey, lingering, and reluctant to let go. And even now, spring seems to show up for a hot second, then disappear. A few days of sun and suddenly I want to drop everything and run outside. My mood changes significantly. I get excited to walk everywhere, take it all in, and feel inspired. Suddenly, I become obsessed with catching the blooms before they disappear, even though I can’t really name most of the trees.

Last November, I made my grand return to Marrakech after 20 years. I was invited by Duende Retreats to co-host a six-day “Marrakech with Ajiri” experience. I was 25 the last time that I was there, also in November, to deliver a few trunks of clothes and assist on a shoot for a stylist and photographer I had never even met.

Radishes, butter, and a dab of salt always bring me joy. Last week marked the Lunar New Year, and I’m using it as my excuse to finally share a post I meant to write last month. In 2024, I made a Joy List and promised myself I would make one every year. Alas, here I am at the end of February 2026, fretting about a promise that no one else is keeping track of except silly old me. Back in January, I decided I wouldn’t make any resolutions this year.

If you look really close, you can see me trying to hide below this giant beauty. There are only a few days left in the year, and my boring, cliché instinct is to write something like, “I can’t wait to turn the page on this rough year.” But don’t we say that every December? Every year, we seem ready to toss the last 12 months in the bin and place all our hopes on the next one. And yet…this year was damn hard.