Let's Bring Back Being Easily Delighted

There is something I think we have forgotten how to do; be easily delighted. Not impressed, not entertained, not distracted. 

Delighted. 

There is a difference. Somewhere along the way, we started requiring so much from our lives before we allow ourselves to enjoy them...

A beautiful sunset isn't just a beautiful sunset anymore, because we need the perfect picture.

A good meal isn't just a good meal, at least not until we post it, rate it, review it, and then we can decide whether it was "worth it."

A vacation isn't quite complete until we've documented every coffee shop, outfit, beach chair, and appetizer.

Even rest needs to be productive.

And ordinary days? Well those types of days can feel like they're waiting for something better to happen.

But what if nothing is wrong with the ordinary? What if we've simply forgotten how much there is to notice? I want to be the kind of person who gets excited about little things again. I want to get irrationally happy when my favorite song comes on. I want to appreciate clean sheets like they are a five-star hotel. (Clean sheets are top tier when you share your bed with your dogs - fight me on it.) I want to buy the season coffee just because the cup is cute. I never want to pass up the chance to stop and look at the moon, because the moon is my personal favorite. I want to keep getting excited over new books. I want to notice when the light coming through the window is particularly pretty, even if it does highlight the dust and dog hair. I want to enjoy laughing at something stupid until my stomach hurts. I want to get excited when the whether feels like fall (because let's face it...in the state of Alabama, that is the superior season) and admire the fact that change is a good thing. I want to be amused by the ridiculous things my dogs do instead of immediately reaching for my phone to record them, but they always stop before I reach it anyways because they know I be doing too much some days. I want to just enjoy the thing while I am actually experiencing it.

Because maybe that's part of what we've lost. We're so accustomed to documenting every second of our lives that sometimes we can forget to live them. We're so busy looking for the next big thing that we overlooked the tiny things happening right in front of us. And sometimes it seems as if we have become a little too sophisticated for simple joy. We want bigger, better, prettier. We want what is more exciting, more memorable, more instagram-worthy. And I am guilty of these things too. I like to document my dogs, so much so they have their own instagram account for the thousands of pictures/videos my phone holds of them. I like getting to put things out there to relive them again and again. I like the thought of having a presence on social media BECAUSE I am so ordinary, I want people who are like me to know that it's okay to get back to the days where we can admit that there is something wonderfully uncomplicated about being easily delighted.

A warm blanket. A funny text. A perfectly ripe piece of fruit. A really good nap. Your dog greeting you like you've been gone for ten years when you were literally in the bathroom with them on the other side of the door. The smell of rain. A familiar song. A stranger holding the door open for you, because kindness should never be considered uncool. Finding cash in some dirty clothes you're about to wash. A quiet house. Even a loud house. A favorite mug and a good book. A meal someone made just for you. The first sip of coffee in the morning. The last bite of dessert. A breeze through an open window. A friend saying, "I was thinking about you." None of these things are going to make the highlight reel of our lives, and I think that is why they are so beautiful. They don't need to, because they are simply little gifts scattered throughout an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. And I think God has always been rather generous with those gifts, we just don't always notice them.

We talk so much about gratitude, and I wonder if sometimes we've made gratitude feel much more complicated than it needs to be. Maybe gratitude isn't always sitting down and making a list of everything we're thankful for. Maybe sometimes gratitude looks like stopping in the middle of a busy day and thinking, "Wow. Look at that"

It can even be things like tasting something delicious and actually enjoying it instead of eating while scrolling on your phone. Sitting outside for ten minutes with nowhere to be. Laughing with someone you love. Letting yourself get excited about something small without immediately telling yourself it's silly.

Joy does not always arrive with fireworks. It can look like sunlight on the kitchen floor. It can sound like your favorite song playing from the next room. Sometimes it has four paws (or less) and absolutely no respect for personal space. It can smell like dinner cooking. It can feel like clean pajamas after a really good shower. Heck, sometimes it is simply the realization that, for this particular moment, everything is okay. And I don't want to miss those moments because I'm waiting for the bigger ones. I don't want to spend my whole life waiting for the new house, the dream vacation, the exciting announcement, the next season, the next milestone, the next version of myself. Because there is already life happening in between all of those moments.

This life. This Sunday. This cup of coffee. This messy kitchen. This book currently opened on my kindle. The person I love sitting next to me. My bible with highlighted verses and chicken scratch handwriting from notes I found important. The dog sitting at my feet. The friend I am spending time with. This moment that I will never get back. Maybe I don't need to make my life more extraordinary. Maybe I just need to become more attentive to the extraordinary things already hiding inside it. 

So here is my unofficial challenge:

Be easily delighted.

Let yourself be excited about the small stuff. Buy the flowers, wear the perfume, use the pretty dishes. Take the picture, but then put your phone down and look at it with your own eyes, and make the post at a later time. Laugh loudly. Dance in the kitchen. Take the scenic route. Order the dessert. read the book, sit in the sunshine, notice the moon. Tell someone when you love them. Stop rushing through the things you once prayed for...and when something small makes you happy, do not immediately minimize it. Let yourself be happy. You don't need a reason impressive enough to justify your joy. Sometimes "because it made me smile" is reason enough. I think we need to bring back being easily delighted. Not because life is perfect, because it isn't. There will still be hard days and disappointment, grief and unanswered prayers, and things we don't understand. But maybe that's even more reason to notice the little joys when they come.

Life doesn't have to be perfect for us to enjoy the good things God places in it. Delight isn't childish, it is a form of gratitude. Maybe it's one small way of saying, "God, I noticed this." I noticed the sunset, the laughter, the flowers, the way the morning felt, that little moment of peace. I noticed that You were kind enough to give me something beautiful today. And maybe, after all this time, I don't want to be harder to impress. I want to be easier to delight. Give me all of the mundane things, let me show you there is joy there, too. I'll take it, and I'll try to notice it.

Will you?