There is a small problem with being a curious person. The world is overflowing with interesting things. One day it's what is the differences between Pterodactyl and Pteranodon. The next it's trying out resin art, taking a course on calligraphy, researching the history of rusks in different countries, how photographers tell stories through light, or why octopuses seem suspiciously intelligent. Every path leads to more paths. Every answer opens another question.
For years, I treated curiosity like a luxury. Something to enjoy once the work was done, the house was clean, the inbox was empty, and life was finally under control. Of course this meant that curiosity spent a lot of time waiting and when I finally spent time on it I felt guilty. I felt like I was not being 'productive', that I was not doing my best in life.
Then I realized something important.
Curiosity isn't a distraction from life. Curiosity is one of the ways we experience life.
What Is the Curiosity Cabinet?
The Curiosity Cabinet is a personal project. A collection of rabbit holes and interesting things I collected. A shelf filled with fascinating questions, strange discoveries, beautiful ideas, creative experiments, and anything else that catches my attention.
The name comes from the old "cabinets of curiosity" that existed centuries ago. Explorers, scientists, artists, and collectors would fill rooms and cabinets with unusual objects from around the world. Shells. Fossils. Maps. Inventions. Specimens. Tiny wonders that sparked questions and conversations.
This is my version, except instead of collecting objects, I'm collecting experiences, ideas and moments of wonder. Anything that makes me think oh this can be a new hobby, oh I wonder what that means, anything I can see myself writing into a journal at the end of the day.
Why I'm Doing This
A few years ago, life became very small. Depression shrinks the horizon and can turn the world to monochrome. When you're struggling, curiosity is often one of the first things to disappear. Questions feel heavy. Wonder feels distant. Everything becomes about surviving the day. There is no energy for anything else when all your energy is spent just being a functional human being.
This project is, in many ways, a return. A return to exploration. A return to learning things simply because they're interesting. A return to experiencing things 'just because'. Just because it makes me happy. Just because I wondered about it. It's a return to the little girl who was certain she'd be an adventurous explorer one day.
No Experts Allowed
One of the biggest traps of the internet is the feeling that you need to be an expert before you're allowed to talk about something. If you're like me you also get frustrated when you don't do it perfectly the first time.
The Curiosity Cabinet rejects that idea completely.
I'm not creating this series as an authority. I'm creating it as an explorer. As a gentle grace to be terrible at something and still enjoy it. To remember what it felt like to live life in colour and curiosity.
Some entries might be deep dives into history. Others might be strange facts I stumbled across at eleven at night. Some may be photography related. Others may involve mythology, art, psychology, science, storytelling, culture, books, games, hobbies, or things I didn't even know existed twenty minutes earlier.
The goal isn't mastery. The goal is discovery. It's 'hey look, isn't this fascinating? Isn't the world wonderful and weird and weirdly wonderful?'
It's 'oh I messed up but I had so much fun.'
The Rules
There are very few.
Follow the spark. Stay curious. Share the treasures. Put it in the Curiosity Cabinet.
What You'll Find Here
Expect a mixture of things.
You might find:
- Photography and visual storytelling,
- Art, creativity, and culture,
- Attempting a new hobby or a craft I saw on the internet,
- Silly things that make a day more magical,
- Beautiful ideas worth sitting with.
Some entries will be short. Some will be long. Some will probably begin with me asking a question and end somewhere completely unexpected. Some might end up with me finding a new hobby or returning to a loved but neglected item in the cabinet. That's part of the fun.
An Invitation
The Curiosity Cabinet isn't really about information. It's about attention, it's about finding the magic in the day, seeing the beauty in the world, to having fun learning and spending just a little time being amazed. It's to remember that life is bigger and richer than any negative voice in your mind might have told you in the past.
So welcome to the Curiosity Cabinet.
Pull open a drawer. Dust off a forgotten artifact. Follow a rabbit hole. Put something in your pocket.
Let's see where it leads.