Everyday Delights

Today Kat McNally invites our response to this Reverb15 prompt:

Issue 5 of the beautiful magazine Bella Grace carries a gorgeously illustrated quote from a chap called H. Jackson Brown Jr as follows:

“Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can’t put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones.”

What small pleasures gave you moments of intense joy in 2015? 
What more could you cultivate in 2016?

What a fun prompt.   Noticing and celebrating the little wonders is one of my favorite things, and I could probably come up with a list of a thousand things without a problem.  However thirty-three is a new favorite number, and in honor of that, I’m going to list the first 33 things that come to mind.

• Warm weather morning coffee on the porch, greeting the day blowing soap bubble blessings into the world.
• Incense powder applied to the wrists, or earlobes or the heart as a scented blessing.
• My lilacs, my peonies, my rose tree.
• Watching bees swarm my goldenrod in a joyful frenzy of nectar gathering and pollen dusting.
• Monday morning intention setting with my friends, calling in the energies we wish to invoke and holding each other’s intentions with love.
• Marking the seasons with poetry mailed to friends.
• Glittery washi tape and walnut ink crystals.
• Red shoes.
• Having a friend, a very gifted seamstress/artist/magic maker, re-create a beloved smock tunic for me.
• Tuning in every morning to see what flower essence will support me best that day.
• Thanking the bees, and talking to the crows.
• Using a floriography rating system to rate books I’ve read.
• Twinkly fairy lights; small branches gathered after storms; holey stones.
• My pink dinner plates rimmed in dove gray – a vintage find from back when fine dining was one of the delights of train travel.
• Pretty floral patterned notebooks.
• Glockenspiels and kaleidoscopes.
• Writing messages on the soles of my feet.
• How my anthropomorphic salt and pepper shakers make me laugh every time I use them.
• Summer’s first sightings of fireflies which occurred on my birthday this year.
• Moon watching.
• Salt baths infused with rose oil.
• African peanut soup.
• Finding feathers.
• Seeing my secret decoder badge, a present from my sweet husband, and feeling like I’m capable of decrypting the most mysterious of messages.
• When my brother calls to tell me his crazy wonderful dreams and we always end up laughing so hard I cry.
• Listening to the wind and the trees talk.
• My earrings with the secret message carved into the inner surface.  I feel like words of encouragement are being whispered to me all day long.
• Discovering new words that make me light up with delight.
• Jack Frost tracings on the windows.
• University libraries.
• Cookie fortunes.
• Apothecary chests.
• The sound of my obsidian blades wind chime.

What more could I cultivate in 2016?  I commit to keeping my eyes peeled to spot the magic and heart open to receive it.  And I’ll let this very precious and wonderful world do the rest.

I’d love to hear a thing or two that delights you – do tell!