The article discusses Melissa Febos' memoir, "The Dry Season," which explores a year of voluntary celibacy and its transformative effects. Comparisons are drawn between American and British expressions of quitting and giving up, highlighting the gentler connotations of the latter. Febos emphasizes that abstaining from certain experiences allows individuals to embrace new opportunities and return to a fuller awareness of life's offerings. Her reflections extend to discovering beauty in mundane experiences and the spiritual journey intertwined with personal choices.
In the U.K., when people stop smoking, they say they "gave it up,"...to do so is "to hand it over to some other, better keeper."
Her book argues, saying no to one thing allows you to say yes to something else.
Febos realized that she wanted, instead, to widen her aperture, and found that removing something from her life opened her up to all the other things that had escaped her notice.
Febos describes discovering the sublime in daily things-such as the "tang of fresh raspberries and the crispness of clean bedsheets".
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