Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Everyday

I wake up. I peel seventeen soaked almonds. I prepare a concoction of Ayurvedic water that alleviates acidity. I cut a lemon and squeeze to curdle milk for a bowl of cottage cheese. I rummage through refrigerator bags for tomato, capsicum, carrot, beans, peas, garlic, coriander, and pick an onion from the basket perched on the fridge. I compile these ingredients on a plate for his breakfast. I treat myself to a cup of mint tea as I read the words inscribed on my phone wallpaper: I am the cherished and the cherisher. I am the loveable and the lover.

Swati Moheet Agrawal believes in the power of creating small joys instead of pining for a big one to arrive miraculously in her life. Find Swati on Instagram @swatiwhowrites.

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