‘A perfect moment reminded me to appreciate the simple things’

I woke up one recent morning to snow … Yet again! I put on my slippers, stepped out of my cozy bed cocoon, half-asleep and grumpy, and trudged reluctantly to the kitchen to start my coffee. Then, I turned around and looked out the dining room window.

It’s funny how everything can change in an instant! One of the things I observed lately is how my view — of life, the people around me, the world, even my long-held beliefs — is changing. I wonder if it is something that happens as I get older; the fact my life is so different than what I envisioned. I wonder if I’m losing my optimism, or if I’m becoming cynical, hardened. I hope not, but I often think so.

Then, unexpectedly, something happens. Something magical! Something so simple, yet so amazing! I look out my dining room window.

Mother Nature has painted a beautiful winter scene and set it just outside my dining room window. She has accompanied it with music; the song of the birds at my feeders and the gentle, almost silence of the snowflakes as they fall against the glass. I sit on the chair at the table and watch — almost mesmerised — as the picture changes ever so gradually with the additional strokes of whiteness.

I find it hard to believe that I’ve forgotten about the simple pleasures of life. The joy of being alive yet another day. The possibility of seeing something wonderful. The realisation that I don’t have to have much to have it all! I just have to look out the window and see the view.

How often do you take stock of the simple pleasures in your life? What are they?

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