50 ways to be happy in Toronto
Some find it in nature. Others in works of art. Some find it in the company of family, friends or pets. Others in the company of objects.
Some find it in ritual or faith. Others in playing or watching games.
Some chase it down. Others find it only when they stop looking.
Is the key to take care of oneself or to serve others? Is it how we organize our lives or how we organize our societies? Is it a matter of brain science or something more ephemeral? No doubt it is different things to different people. But happiness, whatever it is, can be found -
- is being found - all around us, even in these often dark times and this often-frustrating place.
The Star asked so Torontonians to tell us how, in this city, they find happiness, so that in 2025, we all might find more of it.
SPEND TIME WITH BIRDS
“
I’m one of those COVID-inspired birders. A concussion prompted me to join a Toronto District School Board outdoor nature group that introduced me to over two dozen city parks, all notable birding sites. Who knew the excitement of identifying a goldeneye or a northern shoveler, a whimbrel or a red phalarope, a white-breasted nuthatch or a brown creeper? The 40 varieties of warblers are my next challenge.
– Cathy Crowe
street nurse
TRACK DOWN THE PERFECT CSABAI
“Proust had his madeleines; my version, the olfactory key to the memory palace, is csabai, a bone dry, smoky version of kolbasa, available in its authentic form mainly in proper Hungarian delis. Of which very few still remain. One of the survivors is in a strip mall on Sheppard between Bayview and Yonge — a tiny place formerly known as Honey Bear, and now operating as So HungAry. Walk in and you are walloped by a wall of smell -- sausages, salami, schnitzel, all piled high behind a glass-fronted counter, which, in December, is also laden with Christmas loaves (nutmeg and poppy seed), candies and other vein-clogging, joy-inducing delicacies. – John Lorinc
journalist
AMID CHANGE, FIND CONTINUITY
“
While so many people come to Toronto from across Canada and around the world because of the opportunities a big city provides, I grew up here, as did my parents and grandparents before me. When my father was in palliative care at Bridgepoint hospital, he looked over the hill at Riverdale; he recalled tobogganing there as a kid and taking us to what was once the Riverdale Zoo. We looked over a city that had grown almost unrecognizably over the 84 years he lived, remarking on the touchpoints that make this place home.
– Deborah Dundas
writer and editor
I'm kind of miffed that no one said to explore the city by #BikeTO or hang out all day at multiple TPL branches #ImLibraryPeople!
"50 ways to be happy in Toronto" via @thestar.com
h/t @cathycrowe.bsky.social @johnlorinc.bsky.social @debdundas.bsky.social
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