One of my resolutions is to “Appreciate the seasons and the time of life.”
So, for example, right now I’m sitting by a big window at Hale and Hearty Soups, where I have a great view of the snow just starting to fall.
I don’t like being cold, so don’t particularly enjoy being outside during the winter, but I do love watching snow fall. It enlivens the most ordinary and familiar scene. And today I’m watching a snow-globe type of snow – big, fluffy flakes blowing in wild patterns and disappearing the instant they hit the ground.
Instead of dimly registering a “How nice, it’s snowing,” and then spending a few idle moments eavesdropping on the teenagers sitting next to me, I’m instead taking that time to enjoy the changing light and wind through the flurry.
Montaigne wrote, “Is there some voluptuous pleasure that tickles me? I do not let my senses pilfer it, I bring my soul into it, not to implicate herself, but to enjoy herself, not to lose herself but to find herself, in it….to weigh and appreciate and amplify the happiness of it.”
This is an easy way to boost my happiness, I’ve found: wring more happiness out of small, ordinary moments. This strategy doesn’t require heroic virtue or even a change in my routine, but only that when I experience a happy moment, I “bring my soul into it” more mindfully.
Turns out that, as happiness resolutions go, enjoying the snow is a lot easier than giving up nagging.
