The Simple Things in Life

A tasty lunch. Good music. Playing with a toy on a string.

Wait, what?

Okay, let me start over. The idea for this post came from watching my cat, Rory, playing with his newest toy. It’s a little fuzzball with a bell that’s connected to a stick by a thin metal wire (we have learned not to get a regular string toy–he chews through ribbons and satin strings), and it is apparently the most entertaining thing on the planet.

It got me thinking about the things that have made me happy today. I had a half day at work, which was nice after many recent weeks of overtime. I had a nice sandwich for lunch (after spending several minutes staring into the fridge trying to figure out what I wanted). I’m listening to my favorite playlist on Google Play. It’s not much, but it’s enough. I don’t need anything fancy, really.

I wish I realized this more often. I often complain about my work schedule, about writer’s block, about all kinds of things. I forget about the simple things that give me joy.

I’ll have to remind myself of these little things more often. The holidays are coming up, which usually means thinking about gifts and food and all that fun stuff. In recent years, I’ve been more concerned with what to get other people, but I still spend too much time thinking about what I want. Part of it is because people are asking me to come up with ideas–they’re thinking about what to get other people, too. But do I really need to do that? Can’t I just be happy with what I have and save my own money to get the things I want?

Maybe that will be a new New Year’s resolution. Enjoy the simple things more.