lost in thought, you suddenly find yourself on an unfamiliar block, a street so narrow it’s almost an alley. You stop to look around. The buildings lean toward each other overhead and the shops are like nothing you’ve ever seen. One window displays peculiar lightbulbs and gauges, winking and turning; another shows a galaxy built of cake and icing, with cookies like sugar moons suspended from the ceiling. A third window is all aquarium, with a bloom of jellyfish drifting and dancing near the glass. You try peering through the window but, no matter how hard you squint, you can’t see where the water ends and the store begins. For all you know, there isn’t a store at all. For all you know, it might be the ocean itself in there.
At the end of the alley, a glow of neon catches your eye. A flashing sign. First one word, then the other:
AWKWARD
DELICIOUS
AWKWARD
DELICIOUS
And then both words together
AWKWARD DELICIOUS
AWKWARD DELICIOUS
A cafe? A modern dance studio? You move down the alleyway to see. The windows are shuttered and dark, but on the front door has been tacked a piece of paper.
Remember: The more you play what you want, the more you want to play!
Against the door leans a large red folder.
You reach down and pull out a flier.
Welcome, friends! While our patented Sensation Booths offer the quickest route to an AWKWARD DELICIOUS experience (satisfaction guaranteed!), here’s a quick and easy way to access AWKWARD DELICIOUS at home.
First, remember that accessing AWKWARD DELICIOUS starts with noticing the way it feels to make choices.
Pay special attention to the MEHs and UGHs. These feelings are flags of opportunity! They invite you to enter the portal of AWKWARD DELICIOUS — that wiggly, uncomfortable, inviting sensation of making a choice that feels more like you.
Every time you feel an UGH or a MEH coming on, see if you can step out of your habits and choose AWKWARD DELICIOUS instead!
What would be AWKWARD DELICIOUS to say “yes” to right now?
What would be AWKWARD DELICIOUS to say “no” to?
How much AWKWARD DELICIOUS can you taste this week?
AWKWARD DELICIOUS adventures are all worth trying… but they don’t all feel the same. Consider making a map of where you’ve been! (When you’re done, send us your map so we can put it up in our gallery!)
Here’s part of a map we received recently. (Yours might look very different! We can’t wait to see!)
“I finally tried speaking with my neighbor in her own language. My Turtletongue accent was terrible but she was SO pleased. We’re going to have a two-moon soupzoom next week!”
“I have a lot of rules for myself. Yesterday I sat and tried to feel what it would be like to loosen up about some things. I didn’t actually do it, just thought about it, but you know what’s funny? For just a second, when my body relaxed, I swear it smelled like a boko-boko tree in bloom.”
“Double Winter is my least favorite season. But I don’t like staying inside all the time, either. I decided to sign up for Glacier Bathing and even though it was kind of AGONY, now I also kind of want to do it again.”
“When they asked where I wanted to go out to dinner, instead of saying, ‘Anything’s fine’ the way I always do I said, ‘Rutabaga Palace!’ I felt awkward for sure but everyone was really happy to go where I wanted. And the rutabaga soufflé was LITERALLY the best thing I’ve ever eaten!”
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (a famous one-moon-world book and author)
Awkward Delicious was released on the Full Moon, December 2020