Day 2: Experience the power of pleasure

Todays affirmation is –

“I allow myself to experience pleasure, and my body, mind, and spirit rejoice.” and the prayer is –

“Divine beloved (substitute your own deity), please change me into someone who revels in the joy of life and in allowing others the supreme pleasure of delighting me.”

Before I go on to describe my day, I’d like to pay tribute to Louise Hay. Thank you for your wonderful words of wisdom, both spoken and written. Your book “You can heal your life.” was a light to me when I was in a dark place.

So today was supposed to be the day I wore my favourite clothes (too cold), didn’t do any chores (nobody here but me to do ’em), and use my best china and cutlery for a gorgeous evening meal (not with teenagers around). Oh, and the last task was to watch some funny videos and have a good laugh. I chose some funny animal videos but they didn’t even crack a smile. All I could think of was the safety of the animals and how cruel humans can be, in the name of entertainment. Not exactly shaping up to be the pleasure-filled day it was supposed to be. Harrumph!!

A couple of glimmers of hope started to appear on the horizon. With the house to myself, I could choose where to eat lunch. I chose outside, in the sun, swinging on a swing seat, puppy by my side. She actually behaved herself and did not try to beg for food. This is an amazing  achievement for a Labrador.

Cooking the evening meal turned out to be good fun too. I am so enjoying cooking in my new kitchen. It is a real pleasure to have space to prepare ingredients and read the recipe book at the same time, something I couldn’t do in the previous kitchen. Today’s recipe came from a well-thumbed “Mary Berry Cooks” book. You can tell it’s one of my favourite books by the number of post-it notes sticking out of various pages!

While the peppered tarragon chicken baked in the oven, I had time to sit at my new breakfast bar and watch the food sizzle. It’s so satisfying to watch, even more so, when the hungry hordes descend, wondering what the delicious smell is. The mark of a well-received meal is empty dishes and clean plates. And so it was with this meal.

So here I am, writing up a mostly pleasurable day that definitely didn’t look like it was going anywhere earlier on. It just goes to show you what can happen as long as you stay positive, and hunt out those moments of pleasure. This reminds me of a Professor Dumbledore quote –

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

While my day was by no means dark, I did have to push a little harder to find my happiness and pleasure, and I’m glad I did. Tomorrow should be interesting. It’s the one day I am in the office instead of working from home. Let’s see how my inner goddess fairs in this environment.