Simple Pleasures

Little girls in petticoats jumproping under a spring tree...can it get any better? It's the ultimate symbol of innocent, youthful, simple pleasure. (At least it is to me...)

It's snowing again...big, fluffy flakes coming down hard and fast. I hate winter, but I have to admit, it's awfully beautiful sometimes. But I wouldn't jumprope out in this.

The idea of pleasure is almost foreign to me these days...I spent literally almost all day yesterday, from 7am 'til 12am, doing homework! Granted, some of that was interesting and fun, and a lot of that was me trying to get ahead so that I don't feel like I'm trying to play catch-up all semester long...but still! I did take a brief hour to catch the last half of a Disney Channel Original Movie, "Pixel Perfect." Boy, was THAT weird! Disney can be so hit-and-miss sometimes.

What gives me pure, simple, wonderful pleasure? Writing (which I don't do nearly enough of), music (which I neither listen to nor produce as much as I used to), trying a new art medium (how long has it been since we all did THAT?), working at the elementary school (which I haven't done for almost two months...although I will get to start again this week!), sleeping (which, I'll admit, I do WAY too much of!), and spending quality time with Paul. Pretty much most of all whenever I am involved in the act of creating something beautiful or meaningful and then sharing what I do/know/have with others who I love and care about, I'm a happy girl. I don't get giddy or excited easily, but I'm amused quite easily.

Today I realized something quite profound. I've been in a negative slump lately, mostly out of exhaustion and anxiety and ungratefulness and lots of other things, and I didn't know how that happened. It was so gradual a process. Sometimes we have good days and bad days, but these days have been on a continuum leading nowhere...I realized today that at least one cause, or maybe an effect, of this is that I use the word "hate" a lot and "like/love" not a lot. "Hate" is a strong, loaded word and I almost never used to use it, and I still never would about a person themselves. But things like, "I hate the winter," "I hate when people do that," "I hate not knowing what I'm supposed to do," and so forth really have put me in a place where I've become quite comfortable with using that word in my everyday conversations about everything and nothing. In contrast, where I used to say things like, "I like your dress," "I love this movie," and "I appreciate your time," now there is silence, filled with negatives in my head, "I hate my wardrobe," "I need more money so I can buy this movie," and "Hurry up, already." Which came first, the words or the negativity, I'm not sure. But I believe that words are very powerful things, filled with the ability to shape our thoughts and inclinations, desires and dreams, and that if we use the right ones, we can make our lives so much happier. Words are one of my favorite simple pleasures, and I want to use them rightly.