Is it just me, or did this week speed by faster than Phoebe running through Central Park?

Believe it or not, it’s Tuesday again, and it's time for another edition of the world’s most uplifting newsletter: Positive DONUT 😍.

However this email finds you, I hope you take it as your permission slip to sit back, relax, and revel in a few minutes of joy.

Have a fantastic week! 🥰

- Kailyn

P.S. if you haven’t seen that episode of Friends, check out Season 6 Episode 7 – you’re welcome 😉.

Ready, Set, Go: Today's newsletter takes ~2.44 minutes to read (648 words).

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I am exactly where I need to be.

An Illinois teen’s postcard from NYC just reached him—seven decades and one cross-country move after he sent it. ✈️

Let’s rewind: Back in June 1953, 16-year-old Alan Ball left Illinois for his first big adventure: a summer in Puerto Rico. On the way, he stopped in New York City, toured the brand-new United Nations HQ, and mailed a quick postcard home. The cost of this dispatch? Two cents.

But the postcard never made it to Ottawa, Illinois

...until now.

Last month, the note suddenly surfaced at the local post office—stamped, dated, and undelivered after 72 years. Genealogists then tracked down Ball, an 88-year-old retired ER doctor who now lives 1,700+ miles away in Sandpoint, Idaho.

“That 2 cents did a lot of work,” he chuckled (per the NY Times). “Who gets their mail returned after 72 years?”

The postcard feels like a 1950s version of a quick update via text: Alan told his parents he still hadn’t bought his flight ticket, reassured them after a telegram, and signed off: “Love to all.”

• Though the New York details are fuzzy, Ball remembers Puerto Rico vividly: the roar of the propeller plane, tasting coffee for the first time, and realizing the horses understood Spanish better than he did.

Now he plans to frame the faded card: “I like the unexpected,” Ball told the NYT. “And this had both.”

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👆 Ducks are living in luxury at a bed-and-breakfast in Taiwan, after artist Cheng Tsung Feng designed these floating pinecone-shaped huts for the quacking residents. 

• The cozy shelters—which double as sculptures—use layers of overlapping wood to mimic pinecone geometry, while keeping the birds shaded from heat, wind, and rain.
• Guests may get the infinity pool, but these ducks scored the fairytale cottages.

🥁 66-year-old Kent Broussard dreamed of joining the LSU marching band since he was a little boy. Now the retiree is making his dream come true. 

💈 A Turkish barber may have saved one of his clients lives after spotting an abnormal lump on their neck during a haircut.

📚 Meet the 9-year-old taking college level neuroscience. He dreams of becoming a pediatric brain surgeon—and he’s not too far away from his goal.

Which means fall is just around the corner. Whether you're a summer lover or can't wait to cozy up in the cooler weather, seasonal transitions are a great time of year to sit back and reflect on the year so far.

😉 The leaves are changing, and so could you...Try answering a few of these transition-themed prompts in your journal; I'll be doing them with you!

• How was your summer? How are you feeling lately, really?
• What do you know for sure about your life right now?
• What is one thing you can remove from your plate this season?
• What are you learning to let go of?
• What does your ideal weekend look like this season?
• What intentions do you want to set for the months ahead?

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What’s Your Win is here 😍. Now I love sharing good news stories from around the world, but there’s just something extra special about sharing the positivity from right here in our DONUT community.

Check out the submission we received this week!

📚 Taylor N. is proud of her sister…

• “Back in 2018, my sister started the Bad B*tch Book Club. It was initially 10 of us in a New York apartment and has now grown to over 38,000 members in our online community. Back in 2021, she started hosting summer camp retreats, and after our 5th one this year, she was featured in the New York Times! We are a group of really thoughtful, inclusive people who have a shared loved of reading in common. People from all over the globe and from all different backgrounds and ages are welcome to join. Please share this link so that more people can find my personal favorite corner of the internet!"

1. Where does today come before yesterday?
2. What has one eye, but can’t see?
3. What two things can you never eat for breakfast?

🥹 Can I be real with you? "What's Your Win" is my favorite part of the newsletter. When I started brainstorming Positive DONUT nearly three years ago, this section was one of the first things on my vision board; I wanted a place where people could feel safe and supported to share their day-to-day wins with a community of like-minded and positive individuals. How special is that? 

However, we've been struggling lately to get new submissions. So let me know – is there anything we could do to this section to improve? 

• Would it be helpful to submit your wins anonymously, or maybe a specific prompt would be more helpful to get those creative juices flowing? We'd hate to scrap this section, but with 20,000+ of you, we need your help to revive it! 

🙏 TYSM in advance. I read every response and appreciate any feedback you may have🥰.

And, while we're on the topic, submit your wins here to be featured in next week's newsletter. It can be something as simple as cleaning your room all the way up to a huge work promotion or engagement – like high-stakes poker, the win limits do not exist! 

Submit your win(s) here.  

1. In the dictionary 📖
2. A needle 🪡
3. Lunch and dinner 😉