In Sei Shonagon's Own Words
“In spring it is the dawn that is most beautiful.”
— Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book, Chapter 1
This opens Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, a list of what she found loveliest in each season: spring dawn, summer night, autumn evening, winter morning. She meant that each time of day holds its own particular beauty if you are paying attention. It fits a modern reader drowning in notifications, reminding us that noticing beauty is a practice, not an obligation to perform on demand.
Who Was Sei Shonagon?
Sei Shonagon served as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Teishi in the Heian court of Japan around the year 1000. Her masterwork, The Pillow Book, is a collection of lists, observations, and diary entries prized for its sharp wit and keen eye for both elegance and annoyance. It remains a foundational text of Japanese literature and a surprisingly modern read, full of opinions any reader today would recognize instantly.
Try This Today
Pick one recurring sender in your life whose messages you scroll past out of habit. Today, mute the thread notifications, but set a daily two-minute window to open it on purpose and reply thoughtfully to just one thing. Notice how much better a single real response feels than ten absent-minded ones.
Your Turn
What small, repeated gift from someone who loves you have you stopped truly looking at?
Letters are composites written by the Lifted Words editors. Replies are written in the spirit of each thinker; the quote in the blue box is their own.