Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone and founding reader bobbi lerman; May READERS Darcy alsop, PRERNA BAROOAH, AMITA BASU, Sarina Caragan, Antony Püttschneider, and Elisa Rivera; and May Editorial intern sienna lew. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Everyday

I wake up. I peel seventeen soaked almonds. I prepare a concoction of Ayurvedic water that alleviates acidity. I cut a lemon and squeeze to curdle milk for a bowl of cottage cheese. I rummage through refrigerator bags for tomato, capsicum, carrot, beans, peas, garlic, coriander, and pick an onion from the basket perched on the fridge. I compile these ingredients on a plate for his breakfast. I treat myself to a cup of mint tea as I read the words inscribed on my phone wallpaper: I am the cherished and the cherisher. I am the loveable and the lover.

Swati Moheet Agrawal believes in the power of creating small joys instead of pining for a big one to arrive miraculously in her life. Find Swati on Instagram @swatiwhowrites.

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