Cheryl Richardson’s Little Things: In pursuit of pleasure

One thing is how little value I’ve attributed to the simple things that bring me immense joy – watching the twinkling white lights on the tree in our backyard, playing fetch with my cat (who thinks he’s a dog), sleeping with an open window so I can hear the owls hoot at night, or listening to the rain without doing a damn thing but enjoying the sound.

It’s so easy to put all of our energy into what we’ve been trained to value -advancing a career, making money, building a business, or completing our to-do lists. In our drive to succeed, we tend to miss, (or dismiss) the events that bring us joy. They seem secondary, a reward after a hard days work, or a peripheral pleasure we happen to stumble upon.

I’m making pleasure a primary goal. I’ve been tracking the little things that bring me joy every day for over a year now and it’s always a surprise at what makes the list. Simple things. Tiny things. Things that often cost nothing at all.

What if making space for pleasure in our busy, technology driven lives became a highly regarded goal? How would life be different if we valued peace and delight and joy as much as (or more than) striving to succeed?

What if…