I spent most of today cooking, which made me really happy. I spent the morning and early afternoon making banh bao, Vietnamese steamed buns filled with a pork mixture, slivers of hard boiled egg, and pieces of Chinese sausage. I love the feeling of dough in my fingers, of kneading and lightly adding in more flour, and of testing the springiness of the dough to see if it’s ready or not. I’m not terribly good at shaping and pleating the buns; in fact, they ended up looking pretty sub par even after I intently studied these Chinese women and their hands pleating over and over in bao YouTube videos.

Marcus Buckingham, in his books, likes to talk about how we all have “strong moments,” but we just need to identify them and maximize them in our lives to be happy and fulfilled. Maybe one of my strong moments is when I have dough in my hands.