Delight

A favorite author of mine encouraged me to think about delight today.  Delight alongside gratefulness.  Being grateful for all the things and finding delight in them too.  

Something I have delighted in as of late was one little momma robin who designed her nest  in my purple pansies. And there she laid her little clutch of Tiffany blue eggs.  We tiptoed out every morning to see if another egg was added to the first one.  She laid one egg a day just like google said she would.  Then she incubated those perfect eggs while father robin guarded his family close by.  Finally, again like clockwork, the eggs began to hatch.  Tiny little featherless bodies with great big eyes.  I cannot believe how fast those baby birds grew.  In less than two weeks they grew feathers and wings and large beaks.  We watched as mom and dad flew back and forth with all sorts of nourishment for the little fledglings. They strained their skinny little necks upwards with their large beaks wide open to receive their sustenance.  Mom and dad watched them like hawkes (well I guess like robins) until finally they were too big for their little nest and started to leave.  Now the nest is empty and the little miracles of nature are gone. We took great delight in this whole process.  It was a gift of summer.

I want to look for joy and delight in all the simple miraculous things that take place every day.  Our little pup, for instance.  I delight in his little personality and idiosyncrasies. The way he tilts his little head this way and that to try to understand what we are saying to him. The way he loves someone to scratch him with our feet. How excited he gets when you ask him if he wants to go for a car ride.   I sure hope all dogs go to heaven because what would it be like without our little furry friends?

  I delight in the garden.  Every time a new bloom opens, I get all excited.  Even if it’s just going to be one of its kind.  I especially delight in the plants that grow out of nowhere.  I didn’t plant them but there they are. Like a small bonus. Bringing joy to my morning inspection.  Even just to ponder how God came up with all these different shapes and colors just to cheer us.  Flowers have no real purpose to humans, other than for us just to enjoy them.  Their beauty and their scent.

  Think about cooking and baking.  It’s really miraculous how you can just toss flour and water in a bowl and stir it and stretch it and punch it and end up with something as delicious as homemade bread. Or tossing a variety of ingredients into a pan, then add heat and end up with a scrumptious meal.

 Or how an airplane stays up in the sky, transporting us to somewhere grand and far off that we couldn’t really get to in any other way. I delight in the ocean, the sea, any body of water really.  The power and beauty of an azure ocean.  The waves.  The moon or the sun shining down on the ripples.  The crash of the waves against the sandy shore. The wake made when we power a boat over it or the gentle waves a sailboat cuts.  The spray of the water on our skin on a hot sunny afternoon. 

Slipping my weary body into a hot, sudsy bath with epsom salts.  Candles burning nearby.  Music softly playing in the background.  A cool beverage.  I pretend I don’t have a care in the world.  I just use my sensory perception to delight in that moment. 

Twinkle lights.  I always delight when I see twinkling lights.  What is it about them?  I don’t like the harsh garishness of full on bright artificial light.  It’s just rude. But twinkling lights.  So soft and non invasive.  Just enough light to blot out total darkness and magical enough to delight the soul.  

You find a $5 bill in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn for long time. (I don’t know about you but that gets me pretty excited). You go looking for your favorite magazine and there is one left. The person ahead of you at Starbucks pays for your drink. You luck out and find the very best spot in the parking lot. You come home tired and someone has done the dishes for you. You find something wonderful that you forgot you had. You hair turns out. You sink into a comfy chair and read a lovely book that stirs your soul. You get through an entire project without your serger coming unthreaded. The heavenly scent of the sweet peas you just picked fills your nostrils and you inhale deeply. Snow. Rain. Christmas. Birthday cake or cupcakes. Pie. Coffee with a dear friend. I delight in all these seemingly insignificant everyday happenings.

There is SO much to delight in.  I want to find joy and delight in my mundane everydayness.  Because this is my life.  It is what it is and I want to find joy in it.  I want to be content with it and I can be if I look on so many things with pure delight.  Even just the sound of a lawn mower or kids splashing in a nearby pool or the trees swaying in the wind outside my bedroom window at night.  The aroma of a neighbours BBQ.  The smell of freshly washed workout clothes.The delight in a fresh loaf of homemade bread.  Get out the peanut butter.

Or the way God gives us little surprises and gifts when we are least expecting it.  Reminding us that He is still there and that He cares.  I’ve had so many instances when I can say, Thank you God, I know that was you. And I delight in those.