In this Thanksgiving week (for us in the United States) I have many, many significant things to be thankful for. But today I am turning my mind to some of the simple things that delight and please me.
Recently my wife and I visited friends. Their farm is an hour’s drive north and west. When we left to return home the skies were fully dark. The country roads were quiet. And I suddenly realized that I could turn on the high beams on the car’s headlights.
I live in the surrounding suburbs of a city and when I drive at night there are always, always other vehicles on the road. But I grew up on a farm and as a young driver I traveled the back country, across the prairie, and over the checkerboard oil field roads. I rarely saw another truck, car, or farm implement after dark. I would step on the floorboard switch and flood the road ahead with light. It was common, useful, and ordinary.
But now, this last week, when I flicked the turn indicator leaver towards me and all of the road and much of the surrounding territory lit up before me I felt a special surge of delight. What was ordinary is now rare. Alone on that road, sweeping through the hills, I felt the true power of driving a machine.
I have nothing to add, nothing to subtract from this moment of pleasure. It simply is.
That is the beauty of simple pleasures. They do not require introspection and dissection. They are something to be recognized and savored.
Enjoy your simple pleasures this week.
Thankful For Simple Things: High Beams & Country Roads by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Slicing an orange in half along its equator has a similar effect on me as does reading you every morning, Randy. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks so much, Mari. And the same to you!