Simple Pleasures Week Day Three - Booking Your Time

It’s simple pleasures week on kalanicut.

Today’s simple pleasure builds a bit on yesterdays. My simple pleasure for today is to carry a book in my purse. I have done this on and off for years. It might be a novel, a religious text, a self-help or educational book depending on my mood.

There was a time when there was a set of railroad tracks leading into a factory on the small country road that lead from my country home to my city office. Every once in a while drivers would be stopped by a long train pulling into the factory very slowly. This could take 20 minutes. This was very irritating until I started carrying a book with me. Once I saw the inevitable I stopped my car, put it in park, turned off the ignition and enjoyed a great unwind from a long day at the office.

Carrying a book also came in very handy when I was with other people and had to wait while they were finishing whatever tasks they needed to accomplish, if I was early or someone else was late for an appointment or for a nice hour-long escape at lunch.

You begin to realize how much time we lose in a day or a week waiting for things to begin or end. I began to enjoy these little pauses in my day and feel as if I was taking back my time and my life from the daily demands that I so often feel are robbing me of time to do what I really want to do. I began to cherish these moments and would often regret how quickly things wrapped up or how timely people were because it shortened my moments with myself and my book.

I learned to have patience with life and felt a greater sense of control over the use of my time and how much I enjoyed my life by carrying a book with me. It seems that the simple pleasures always lead us to taking better care of ourselves, being more mindful of how we use our time and how much we really enjoy or don’t enjoy our lives on a daily basis.

Being mindful of simple pleasures relaxes me, centers me, teaches me, guides me and fills me with gratitude for my life. I realize what a sense of duty and what a powerful influence I have over how happy I feel my life is and how I spend my time each day. Thank goodness for simple pleasures and the very intricate and complex way they bless our lives.