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Netnet Camomot . 

I GOTTA feeling you’ve had it up to here with Marie Kondo’s mantra but it can also be used for shopping choices. While inside a shoe store, hold each pair and ask, Does it spark joy? While inhaling each scent at the perfume store: Does it spark joy? While buying a suitcase and trying to calculate which particular size you can carry to the third floor once it’s filled with double-extra-large clothes: Does it spark joy?

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It’s better to decide which items spark joy before buying them. With that question always in mind, it’s possible you’ll end up buying nothing at all.

The mantra is also a good gauge while eating at Wild Flour and Little Flour: Does it spark joy? A humongous yes to that! We gotta feeling these restos’ next branch will be named All Purpose Flour. Hehe.

The food at Manam Café, Okada and even Bench Café definitely spark joy, too.

The Cagayanon realizes that Cagayan de Oro’s (CDO) homegrown restos may not be as popular as the ones in Metro Manila but food will always be kind of it’s “in the eye of the beholder.” Er, more specifically, in the taste buds and appetite of the beholder. Family and friends know that I find most food groups yummy, from bulad to steaks, from plain rice to pork adobo fried rice, from tinolang isda to lauyang baka. No wonder I have curves in the wrong places that need XXL clothes, thus, the dilemma now on what suitcase size to buy.

A friend commented that Kondo’s mantra is also good for gauging which friendships and relationships one wants to keep. While talking with a certain person, you’ll somehow know if his mere presence still sparks joy. But if he evokes bad memories of friendships gone awry, continuing that conversation will only spark stress. You can always be as diplomatic and tactful as a politician, though, in dealing with people like him.

I’m writing this column while lounging in a condo unit that has a golf course for a view. Definitely sparks joy. A friend asked if the unit is mine. Wish ko lang! With much gratitude to the owner who has allowed us to stay here for almost a week, this is where one can make muni-muni while planning what resto to try next.

And one doesn’t have to wonder why this place sparks joy: Kondo’s “Spark Joy” is displayed on the shelf.

And the owner obviously reads. Right beside Kondo’s book is Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” And also travels, with books on Rome and Greece on the trunk chest coffee table.

A condo unit forces one to lead a minimalist lifestyle. Unless that’s merely his siesta place due to its proximity to the office and still goes home after office hours to the gated neighborhood. Which is possible not only in Metro Manila but also in CDO where traffic is now a daily challenge.

Storage facilities become a huge business opportunity once people can’t decide which of their possessions still spark joy. They need space for items they don’t want to see anymore but which they’re saving for future use.

There’s a meme that says, “Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.” That should be taught in preschool, before young children can acquire this hard habit to break of accumulating things. Because life can be as simple as this: read, write, eat, window-shop, sleep.

For now, window shopping may actually mean shopping for windows which can be not as simple as you think. Gosh. Who would have known? Windows for a highise condo building have to withstand all sorts of stress and pressure, while windows for a residential house may not need as much, uh, qualities.

Books, however, may need a deeper decision-making process. Once a first paragraph doesn’t spark joy, you’re outta there.

The first paragraph of Mark Manson’s book may not spark joy, but its title—which has the word, f*ck—is the kind that may make you read what’s inside. That curiosity may then lead you to this paragraph on page 14: “When most people envision giving no fucks whatsoever, they imagine a kind of serene indifference to everything, a calm that weathers all storms. They imagine and aspire to be a person who is shaken by nothing and caves in to no one.”

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