Joy

I've always chosen to spend my leisure time with cheerful people, the more lively their sense of humour the better.       

It is one thing to permit enjoyment in small doses. It is another to place it firmly alongside health, relationships, and financial security as a genuine life priority.  I'm tempted to tell myself that is faintly irresponsible. Years of conditioning have taught me enjoyment belongs on the sidelines, something to be fitted in once everything else is taken care of.

The difficulty lies in recognising “everything else” is rarely finished.  If you allow it, there can always be another task, another obligation, another reason to delay pleasure. When enjoyment depends on completion, it disappears.  It's easy to let the "enjoyment must be earned" mindset to creep in. 

For me, mental health, feeling connected, and a sense of fulfilment do not emerge accidentally. They are built through the experiences we allow ourselves to have. Enjoyment is not separate from a well-lived life; it is one of the core ingredients.

I don't think pleasure and enjoyment are the same thing but they are definitely first cousins.  I can find enjoyment in the simplest of pleasures.  What I enjoy does not need to be extravagant or time-consuming. Small, regular moments often have more impact than occasional grand events.  

I'm not too sure where I'm going with all this.  Except to tell you I had an accident, a fall, a week ago.  Today is the first day I've felt half alive and have felt pleasure in anything.  Thankfully, it is nearly spring and the paradise ducks which nest in the trees out front of my unit have been displaying mating behaviour, and a young male has been getting a bit uppity and creating havoc.  Today I noticed some of the smaller birds squabbling, too.

  Mother Duck all happy one minute.

The next minute she is complaining, got a lot to say and, to me, seems to be acting submissively.  Not that I know anything about duck behaviour.  But Father Duck is definitely on the alert for the optimistic intruder and then there was a short battle in the air which I wasn't quick enough to capture.

After a week of discomfit I am so happy that the ducks have reminded me to find pleasure in small things.

And thankful to my friends and neighbours who have taken such good care of me this past week and for having the trees to look out at when I couldn't move far.

 

Oh, mustn't forget the pretty little orchid a friend gave me.