The Gratitude Mistake That Took Me Two Years to Fix

Gratitude isn’t about noticing blessings — it’s about inhabiting them.

“Gratitude Knoll.” Painted by me. For sale here. Purchase includes one year to the premium, Tomik’s Diary tier of my Substack.

Before I moved into my Clinton Hill apartment, I spent a lot of time in this neighborhood. I dated a boy for a year who lived there. I also made monthly Summer trips to Fort Greene Park for Soul Summit, that joyous house music event where Brooklyn’s full, beautiful spectrum comes together to dance. I remember leaving those afternoons, weaving through the brownstone-lined streets, and thinking: wow, this is so quaint.

It was everything I wanted a neighborhood to be — leafy, residential, quiet in pockets but still humming with life when you passed a corner café or wine bar. Like many New Yorkers, I kept a running list of my dream neighborhoods, and mine always came down to three: Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, and the West Village.