Redstone Diary 2025: Moments of Happiness

edited by Julian Rothenstein

with an introduction and texts selected by Marina Warner

Life, the philosophers say, should be spent in pursuit of happiness. We are bombarded with advice on what fulfilment looks like: on how to be, what not to do, improvement plans, mantras of wellbeing, being kind to oneself, and others. But such contentment, as Émilie du Châtelet points out, remains elusive. Nor is it a rational goal, however alluring. We can, at best, only see glimmers of such pleasures and recall them in retrospect. But if we can place these moments together, day by day, across weeks and months, we can achieve something like a good life.

The 2025 Redstone Diary is a calendar of these essential moments of flourishing. The diary is transformed into a profound meditation across the seasons; of staying in the moment, finding enlightenment in the close-to-hand yet extraordinary. Such joys can be found in flying children and flags fluttering above the city, love and desire. In bathing in cold water, and in the warmth of the sun.

From Virginia Woolf’s diary to Confucian texts, the syncopations of Fred and Ginger, to the Pillow Book of Shea Shonagon, Moments of Happiness, 2025, brims with photography, painting, poetry and a thought-provoking introduction by Marina Warner that questions how and why we pursue our bliss. 

245mm x 167mm / 160pp / Spiral bound / ISBN 978-1-7395976-1-0