IN PRAISE OF
SMALL THINGS
ODE TO THE ORDINARY
PHOTO BY ANN BUGAICHUK
// JANUARY ‘26
ISSUE 01
JAN-MARCH ‘26
PRINTED
MATTER
Your quarterly archive, in print.
From the Journal
Small Banquets
The communal spread is a signal of trust dating as far back as ancient civilisations. After the hunting and the foraging, the preparation and meal-making, humans have routinely come together to take share in sustenance. Across nations, families, tribes, traders and travellers, convene around the table, forming a social agreement that affirms safety through shared satiety. To eat together, historically, has been to belong.
The Quiet Confidence of Enough
But there is a fine line between gratitude and complacency, between self-respect and entitlement…Contentment is not the absence of movement but the absence of inner turmoil.
The Divine Gift of Reading
A people who cannot read their own story are a people who are easily persuaded of someone else’s. This gradual decay of literacy has resurfaced today, not through lack of access to knowledge, but through a willing neglect of it. Causes are recycled, their substance distorted rather than deepened. Quotes are misappropriated, adopted as mantras stripped of their context, then mistaken for wisdom. Self-censorship has replaced honest opinion; we no longer possess the understanding to defend our convictions, nor the grace to listen when others differ.