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At noon yesterday, I told my wife I was going down to the racquetball club to see if I could find a game. She said, “Oh, I was thinking we could do a picnic lunch someplace.” I immediately took the better deal. We made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grabbed a bag of chips, and walked five minutes from our house in Northfield down to this park bench at Riverside Park on the Cannon River.
We chatted about the usual stuff: kids, our work, friends, the news — I really don’t remember now, of course. But at one point, it occurred to me that we were immensely enjoying ourselves. I mentioned to her that I’d read somewhere that one reason people who win the lottery generally are less happy after they’ve won is because they no longer take time to immerse themselves in simple pleasures that they once enjoyed. They may not have been fully aware of how satisfying it was to sit on the porch steps chatting with their neighbors, or walking around the block hand in hand. But now that they have money, they feel compelled to take their neighbors to a fancy restaurant. Or fly someplace exotic to walk hand in hand. And so their focus in life gradually turns to a never-ending process of how to top that, or at least, to keep doing things that cost a ton of money to keep the pleasures coming. They lose the ability to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. And they don’t even know it.
So there we were, fully aware that we were enjoying a simple pleasure: a five minute walk to a park for a PBJ picnic at lunchtime in the middle of the week. And it was sweet.
Quote of the Day
The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple. – Doris Janzen Longacre
So how the hell do I go about enjoying more simple pleasures on a more regular basis if it’s not simple like this woman says? I don’t really know. Maybe the more I do it, though, the easier it will be to keep finding ways to do it more regularly. And talking about it. Writing about it. Scheduling it.