Today I Noticed . . . Friendship Loves Letters
A cozy gathering, colorful books, and a pen pal kit later, connection blooms
Welcome to the Golden Bowl! If you’re new, I’m Sabrina Moyle, children’s book author and co-founder of Hello!Lucky, a creative studio, and this is where I share ideas about creativity, parenting, and personal growth. I’m so happy you’re here! 😊
Audio version:
The sun glowed through the curtains and over wooly throws in my inviting library on an April Saturday.
“Rainbow books!” a woman exclaimed as she entered, pointing to my bookshelves, where stacks of books were arranged in columns of color—tucked alongside my sons’ preschool clay projects, a flea market ceramic lion, and favorite family photos.
I laughed appreciatively. Today was all about noticing.
We settled into our seats, like women in days of yore gathering to quilt, knit, or weave baskets.
“I love hosting gatherings,” I confessed, as the women took in the comfy sofas, letter-writing kits, and signed books. “But I always feel a sense of dread right before. You know, the pre-party panic: ‘Is my house clean enough?’ ‘Will anyone show up?’ And then I remind myself—the people who are meant to be here will be here. And I’m always so glad I did it.”
Everyone laughed, and Willow Older, co-author of Today I Noticed: A Little Book of Mindfulness that Will Change the Way You See the World, began thumbing through brightly tabbed pages.
“I have the perfect page for you!” she said, opening the book and reading aloud.
“Today I noticed ‘I think of you as family’ also means ‘I invited you for dinner, but I didn’t clean the house.”
The group erupted in laughter. It was the perfect segue into Willow’s origin story—with her friend and co-author Deborah Huber.
The Story of Today I Noticed . . .
“Deborah and I met when our kids were in middle school,” Willow shared. “We instantly clicked and decided to be each other’s ‘YES friends.’ You know, the friend who always says ‘yes’ to your quirky ideas?”
We all laughed—either because we had a YES friend or knew we needed one.
“One day,” Deborah added, “we made a date to meet at SFMoMA for an exhibit—only to discover it was closed! Instead of going somewhere else, we took a mindful walk around the neighborhood.”
They started pointing things out to each other—a daisy in a sidewalk crack, a colorful mural, a quirky hat. Soon they were in the best mood, feeling lighter and closer.
What if they did this every day? They headed to the art store and bought paper, pencils, and watercolors—even though neither considered themselves an artist.
Each day, they wrote and sketched what they noticed, then called to share their often humorous reflections.
Then COVID hit. Their tradition became a lifeline—keeping them grounded and connected. They realized they were onto something the world might need. So they pitched the idea to an agent. And just like that, Today I Noticed was born.
A Mindful Afternoon Brunch
The instigator of our gathering was Jill Daniel, founder of Happy Women Dinners, who dubbed it “A Mindfulness Women’s Afternoon Brunch” celebrating women’s friendships, gratitude, and letter-writing.
Happy Women Dinners brings women together to connect in small groups with amazing female guest speakers in a beautiful private home (my rainbow shelves!) and a delicious organic meal. Guests range from established to emerging voices—from Elise Loehnen to Roxanne Gay to Lori Gottlieb—and the common thread is healing. “Eat. Give. Heal.” is their motto.
Now it was my turn to share.
“I love Today I Noticed because it brings mindfulness into the everyday,” I said. “In Western culture, we often reduce mindfulness to watching our thoughts. But it’s so much more than that.”
“Mindfulness is relational,” I added, inspired by a recent episode of The Emerald, a podcast that reconnects modern life with myth, story, and animate tradition. “It’s about our relationship with each other, with the Earth, and with everyday things.”
I pointed to a sparkling water can on the coffee table. “Even that can has a story. It came from minerals. Someone designed it, made it, shipped it. So much care went into it—and even something seemingly throwaway holds energy and intention.”
Gratitude, Kids, and Elephant Underwear
Next, I read from Thanks a Ton! A Book of Gratitude, which I wrote with my sister Eunice, seated beside me. In it, a little elephant struggles to find the right words to express gratitude, so instead piles “grateful stuff” into a red wagon—like a big baboon, polka-dotted underwear, and a Saint Bernard.
Kids are concrete. Gratitude is not.
The first time I remember truly feeling gratitude was in college, in a class on the history of everyday objects. My professor explained how everything in the “built environment”—from a No. 2 pencil to a corkscrew—was designed. And that design affects our lives in profound ways.
Everyday things led me to write Thanks a Ton!—and to the gathering I was hosting.
“What a wonderful way to teach gratitude to kids!” Willow said warmly as I finished reading.
“By the way,” she added, “Today I Noticed works wonders with kids, too. It gets way better responses than ‘How was school today?’”
The moms in the room groaned and laughed in recognition.
Letter-Writing as Connection
Inspired and grateful, we passed out Write Me Back! pen pal kits—a new Hello!Lucky product made in collaboration with Egg Press—along with Today I Noticed prompts like: “Today I noticed that having a friend like you feels _________.”
After twenty minutes of quiet writing in cozy corners throughout my house, we reconvened.
“So what was that like?” Willow asked.
“Cathartic!” one woman exclaimed. “I realized I had so much I wanted to say to my friend, but just hadn’t had the chance.”
More laughter.
“My handwriting is a disaster,” another woman confessed. “But it felt intimate—like my friend was getting the real, messy me.”
Heads nodded all around.
“Yes!” I chimed in. “Real relationships are one-to-one. And lately, with AI everywhere—even in my inbox—it felt so good to know that these words were undeniably mine.”
Several women said they’d be using Today I Noticed from now on. We hugged goodbye, each of us noticing small, sweet things about one another as we parted.
A Little Practice That Opens Big Doors
The next day, I was still glowing from the warmth of it all—old friendships deepened, new ones sparked.
That Monday, while merging onto the freeway after school activities with my 15-year-old son beside me, I said, “Wow. See those vines climbing up that tree? They’re so voracious!”
To my surprise, my normally don’t-bother-me, earbuds-in son lit up.
“Yeah!” he said. “You should’ve seen the trees in the San Juan Islands—there was moss growing all over them! It was AMAZING!” He’d just gotten back from a school trip, about which details had thus far been in short supply.
I beamed. In that moment, Today I Noticed had created an opening for connection—and gratitude—that might have otherwise passed us by.
And I noticed my heart felt very, very full.
P.S. Today I Noticed and Thanks a Ton! are available wherever books are sold. Write Me Back! Pen Pal Kits are available here for $22. You can connect with Deborah and Willow at todayinoticed.com and on Instagram. Learn more about Happy Women Dinners at happywomendinners.com. You can listen to The Emerald podcast’s episode on Mindfulness here.