SMALL PLEASURES

     The real joy in life is not necessarily in the big achievements, but in the small pleasures: ice cream, honeysuckle, the feeling of energy in the body, the smell of woodsmoke; the rise and fall of music that moves us, laughter, tears. We don't have to be rich, or way up on the corporate ladder. We don't have to have a great relationship with our parents or with anyone in particular, and we don't have to be perfect physically. We don't even have to be near-perfect.
     All we have to do is be alive to experience the gifts of living, and then when death takes us, I imagine other gifts will follow. But for now, for today, I take my joy in the hum of car wheels on the road beneath me, and the gentle breezes of summer; in hot showers and birds around the feeder; in all that I can see and whatever I feel, in the tap of computer keys and our German Shephard chewing on his bone. Happiness is simple, and always available. It's not in future plans or past achievements. It's right here and right now. It's being fully in the moment. All we have to do is pay attention, and it is ours.

I take joy in small pleasures!