Something To Think About...

When we lack proper time for the simple pleasures of life, for the enjoyment of eating, drinking, playing, creating, visiting friends, and watching children at play, then we have missed the purpose of life. Not on bread alone do we live but on all these human and heart-hungry luxuries."

-Ed Hayes

I wish I could say I wrote what's posted below, but I took it out of a book entitled "Simple Pleasures" by Susannah Seton, Robert Taylor, and David Greer. Also, thank you to my mother for taking the photograph of the beautiful rainbow you see above.

There's a Zen story about a monk who was climbing a steep mountain. Suddenly there appeared above him a snarling tiger, blocking his path. Below him, the cliff fell away to a gaping chasm. While he was deciding what to do next, the monk turned his gaze to the mountainside in front of his face. There his eye fell upon a little plant that had managed to root itself in a crevice. And from the plant's single stem hung a perfect wild strawberry, ripe and red and glistening with dew. The monk reached out his hand, plucked the tiny fruit, pressed it against his tongue, and closed his eyes in ecstasy.

This is about seizing the day and savoring the moment. It's about finding a touch of bliss in everyday events. And it's about saying attention to wild strawberries, whatever form they may take.

While most people would gladly agree that the pursuit of happiness is high on their list of priorities in life, they might think twice about saying the same about the pursuit of pleasure. In a culture that places so much emphasis on productivity, pleasure gets bad press. Somehow we associate it with idleness and decadence. But happiness, that elusive butterfly, has a lot to do with our ability to take delight in the day-to-day pleasures of our existence, whether that means the smell of a rose or the love felt for a child or the comforting rituals that soothe us. Too many of us pass these basic satisfactions by in the rush and clutter of modern life. And sometime later, whatever our grand achievements, like Citizen Kane we often long for a simpler life and remember best our Rosebuds, those small delights that seemed like nothing much at the time and brought us happiness when we thought about it least.

The simple pleasures of our lives are too important to be reduced to memories. They contribute to our physical and emotional health, and they even make us more productive be increasing our contentment. Whatever our situation, they're right at hand, if we only take the time to enjoy them. The grass may be greener on the other side, but a single flower that thrusts up through a crack in concrete can give as much delight as a whole meadow, if only we let it.

The people who seem most content don't focus on a time years ahead when they hope to have whatever they imagine it takes to be happy -- money or time or a wonderful relationship. They live in the present and take their pleasure seriously. And they create their own pleasures.

We believe that the secret of happiness in today's helter-skelter technological world is to learn how to enjoy less than we can afford. We need to rediscover the pleasures our grandparents knew when life was quieter and slower, when children without TVs knew how to amuse themselves, when pleasures were made, not bought -- and enjoyed all the more because of it. I hope you'll remember many of the simple pleasures in your life that you may have drifted away from, and come away with many ideas for adding new pleasures into your life.