Pleasure

Some friends came to supper last night. D is a whizz at flower arranging, well someone has to be good at it, I'm certainly not! She bought me a round fresh flower table decoration which is beautiful. It's in the middle of my table & I hope it lasts a really long time, because it is giving me so much pleasure every time I go into the kitchen.

We had a nice meal & the conversation flowed, over a huge range of topics, for hours. It was very pleasurable. Human beings need to interact with other humans. We are social animals.

I am playing my piano. I am improving, but there are still bum notes. It is giving me a lot of pleasure & helping stimulate my brain & keep my fingers mobile.

I am painting my shed. The painting itself isn't particularly pleasurable, but my daughter comes over to help me periodically & we talk - non stop. We catch up with eachothers lives in a way we can't over a quick coffee when the twins are there. When she isn't helping me I listen to music on my MP3 player. I suspect that my singing along to Dire Straits, or even worse, opera, isn't pleasurable for passers by though.

I swim 4/5 times a week. I meet nice people & we chat. The actual swimming is truly pleasurable & theraputic. My brain goes into a Zen state. I am exercising my body - good. But I am also relaxing my brain into an altered state - very good. 

I think, in this busy modern world, we have forgotten how important real pleasure is. Pleasure doesn't need to cost money or have a designer label. Pleasure can be very small things.