The Pleasure Principle

Hang on – I’ll just go pour my coffee – BRB!

Aaah – that’s better. It’s a cup made in the little plunger with a nice blend of bean pulverised in my birthday present from lovely hubby – a coffee grinder. I’d never had one before and its a well used present. I think as I get older I’m appreciating some of my often ignored senses. I love the scent of the coffee as it’s released from the bean. It fills the head with its scent, almost like tasting it before you’ve tasted it.

I seem to be doing a lot of things like that just now. Small things that I’d ignored previously become huge pleasures. I’m becoming less tolerant of the mass produced, preservative soaked and additive addled foods we’re offered in the shops and heading more for the fresh, the fragile, the foods that are time sensitive and only edible for a certain period before going off. I’m learning not to trust eating or drinking anything that doesn’t age or rot. I guess I’m also soaking in the pleasure principle – just like the one advocated by Mireille Guiliano – where the chief motivators to eat and live well are;

• the choice of quality over quantity and, ultimately,
• savouring the pleasure in life, be it food, work, pastimes or anything else.

It’s not a staggering change though, or a violent revolution. It’s something that has begun quietly and continues as I follow my nose and my newish sense of prioritising the good things in life.

A short list of the things I’m enjoying right now, because I’m making a point of enjoyment include:

Being in the garden; family time; Tai Chi (and the heady – almost drunken – feeling of breathing properly); Our doggies; thinking; cooking; walking; writing (after many many years I’ve started writing poetry again).

On reading the list back, it does seem pretty mundane but it doesn’t feel that way. These simple things really do deliver great pleasure. They wouldn’t have years ago when I felt driven and that I had other stuff to do, but now that I’ve achieved a lot of what I set out to do I’m more relaxed about it all.

If you find that life seems to be whizzing by, why not try it yourself. Take five minutes to observe beauty, be immersed in fragrances of beauty whether foods or essential oils. Pat your dogs, taste a new, sensational cheese or practice active listening with your favourite music or the birdsong round about. Use all of your senses to absorb the pleasures of the world around you – just for five minutes. You never know, you might grow to like it! :o)

Have a great week!

M x