pleasure – The Hermits' Rest

Clouds, Breezes, and Other Small Pleasures

I’ve been reading a lot about “glimmers” these days, which are little moments of joy or comfort that occur in daily life. I love this concept, because I realized quickly that I live for these moments of fleeting happiness. Today I had a few of these, as well as some larger pleasures. And I want to share some daily glimmers I’ve noticed.

Glimmers of Surprise

One glimmer today came when I finished cleaning the tack room and was chatting with my son (a larger pleasure) and I looked in the window to see a sparkling dragonfly. It pleased me so much! (It’s outside now.)

I was also filled with joy by another dragonfly today. I was listening for birds to write about in a Master Naturalist blog, when a little fellow I’d never seen before distracted me by repeatedly landing on the barbed wire as if to say, “take my picture.” I did so, then enjoyed the interesting way these checkered setwings hold themselves. I’m still smiling at how cute this guy was. A great pair of glimmers.

Large Pleasures

My larger pleasure today came when the horses were scheduled to have their hooves trimmed. I was not looking forward to it at all, given the weather lately and the fact that it was scheduled for the hottest part of the day.

But, the weather deities smiled on me and Terry the farrier. First, the horses were already in their pens, so I didn’t have to chase them, and then, as we began to work on Dusty, a lovely breeze sparked up and some genuine clouds passed over. In the shade, it wasn’t bad at all.

Then the horse calmness deities smiled and caused all four horses to have their most pleasant moods, which meant that the trimming went very quickly with few mishaps. Even Mabel’s feet are looking better, perhaps because I’ve been feeding her good food?

The only little mishap came when it was Drew’s turn. He’d been snoozing while the other four were getting worked on, and seemed to really want to continue his nap. In fact, he started snoozing with his leg in the air getting rounded off, and slipped off, hitting his head on my arm. I was surprised to see I have a bruise and abrasion! Poor little guy didn’t mean it, of course.

Ow. You can’t tell but it’s raised and turning purple now.

The clouds continued to please me greatly after I finished feeding the horses and cleaning up a lot of mouse poop in the tack room. I got in the pool and was able to float comfortably as long as I wanted to, because there were high clouds that filtered the sun nicely. (Now don’t get more wrong; it was still 105 today.)

Daily Glimmers

It’s nice to have things in your day that you appreciate. I’ve been trying to notice times of the day that give me regular glimmers. One is thanks to the heat. I love the feeling of rolling off my pool float back into the pool. The sensation of hot skin hitting the cool water is just delightful.

The other time of the day that gives me a glimmer every single time is the moment after I put away my reading material, turn off my light, and lie down on my fluffy pillow. The soft pillow combined with the cozy blanket and the lovely darkness makes me smile a little as I close my eyes every night.

What little pleasures do you have in your life?

I Collect Collections

Do you have any collections?

Todays blog prompt made me lol. Do I have any collections? Afraid so. And it started early. Heck I still have some of the first things I ever collected, porcelain horses from my grandfather, as I mentioned recently.

There’s one more, but her leg needs to be repaired.

I come by this honestly. I love sorting and categorizing things, as did my mom. I guess it kept me out of trouble as a kid! I was so busy organizing piggy banks, making card catalogs for my books and lining up my Hot Wheels cars that there was no time to get in trouble.

One of two childhood piggy banks I still have.

So, I declare that collections are healthy and only a problem when you think they’re a problem. No, I’m not a minimalist.

I have collected things with pansies on them for decades. They still make me smile. Mom loved pansies. Mom also had some cool purple glass stuff. I recently shared my purple glass window in the bathroom. Here are teacups.

And there are still more horse statues. And rocks. And nail polish (I need to stop that one). And books, yarn, crystal, wine corks, dogs, horses, ugh. Too much. It makes me happy, sparks joy, or whatever.

If my collections become a problem later in life, I’m sure someone else will enjoy them when they go thrifting. It’s fine with me.

The vet came today. This is our annual reminder that having lots of animals is very expensive. But I’m glad we can avoid certain illnesses, know the dogs don’t have heart worms, and soon will know the horses passed their annual Coggins test.

The dogs were better than usual. That’s not saying much, since four had to be sedated. Goldie had a great time and volunteered to go back in the trailer numerous times, even though she got bonus shots for allergies and her leg sore she won’t stop licking.

Penney, the unstable one, managed to get her shots like a big girl. Harvey still growled through sedation, Alfred got real zonked, Vlassic had to be carried into the trailer, and Carlton was quite a challenge to catch. He even ran off while sedated. But they all did it!

I was too busy helping to take horse photos, but they were troopers, even when the assistant was learning to take blood and give shots. She did great! Mabel was deemed too thin, Apache was too fat, and the other two were just right. I’m glad to get that taken care of for another year.

I had an injured toenail. Who knew? All fixed.

Irrational Pleasure at Small Things

I’m beginning to think the reason I’m usually in such a positive frame of mind is that it’s so darn easy to give me little bits of happiness throughout the day. Just in my office, alone, there are things that make me feel a wee bit of joy every time I use them. Just now I was talking to Anita about my love for the very large set of gel pens she got me for Christmas.

They replaced the HORRIBLE gel pens I’d been using to write in my notebook every day. I’d say 75% of them were dried up before I even got to use them, and they weren’t that old. I do love the stand they came in, but I guess Anita got tired of me cursing every time I tried to write something down.

The new pens work like a charm. I, being me, and using them in order to write my notes each day. It’s the baby version of the incredibly complex, but meaningful to him, system Lee uses in his really fancy journals.

Other things that just perk me up a little every day are my various rose-scented items. I love the smell of roses. Of course, it makes Lee sick (I have never met anyone so sensitive to scents in my life, and that’s saying a lot for someone who attended a Unitarian Universalist church where scents, real candles, and many types of flowers were banned because of folks who, I assume, would not have lasted long prior to this century), so I indulge mostly in Austin or in my office in Cameron.

Before I got so lost in my parenthetical ravings, I was going to say how I like the rose cuticle oil (with cute li’l dried strawflowers in it) and my fancy rose oil perfume from my favorite multi-level marketing vendor. I have one of those for all my desks.

Naturally, my red leather notebook with my name on it makes me happy, too. I write in it every day and enjoy how soft it is. It’s from Jenny Bick, if you want your very own cute journal.

One more thing I love is a good keyboard. I must say I irrationally love the clicky keyboard I have in the Austin office and the cute candy-colored one I have in the Cameron office (they are from a Chinese company that markets itself as the PNK Stuff). Why not enjoy yourself while you type all day, every single day?

Glamour shots of my keyboards, from their website.

Well, look at that. I just came up with all these things just sitting at my desk! No wonder I’m such a chill type of gal these days. I doubt I’ll continue and share what I love about the area around my chairs in my living rooms or my bed. I think it’s clear that many things bring me joy. No wonder I can’t toss most of my things.

What makes you happy just by having it nearby or using it daily? Suna wants to KNOW!