SIMPLE PLEASURES

I was on a work trip the other day and finally got to ride on the Gautrain. My excitement was on another level, I was like a child in a toy store. I took pictures of every moment and made sure that I had proof of my crowning moment. It may seem silly to most but it was in enjoying this for all it was that I realised something: Life is not the grand moments that we wait for in our lives but the simple things that we overlook in our daily lives

So many of us spend our years in a trance-like state waiting on big moments to whisk us away and sweep us off our feet. In living that way we miss the everyday moments that seem insignificant that have the power to ignite in us pure joy. It's the simple moments like riding on a train, hearing from a friend, passing an exam, managing to wake up and exercise when we said we would, it's waking up in the morning and still having breath in our bodies. These are these moments in life that we have reduced to mundane that should be giving us the joy we seek.

Yet often we wait on grand gestures, we tell ourselves that the occasion needs to be big before we celebrate it. In an effort to wait on those moments, we risk looking back one day and realising that we missed all that life was. If you are waiting around for the moments you want, you will miss those ones that you have that are just as worthy of a celebration as the "big ones"

I was recently telling a friend and sister who has just quit her job to start a business to embrace the process and to celebrate each step accomplished in the process. The celebration needs not wait till the business is up and running and making money to be celebrated. Finally quitting the job, coming up with a name, getting registered etc those are the small moments she should pat herself on the back for reaching. If the main focus is the end result, she will totally miss the small moments in the journey that should have also brought joy in her life.

Life is not only about the finished product, it's not in finally having the title you dream of or the bank balance that affords you what you desire but it is about the journey getting there. It's about the falls and gains, it's about what you do wrong and get right, it's about finding joy in the mundane and ordinary. It's about allowing yourself to feel each and every moment of your journey and learning to celebrate not just the milestones but the simple pleasures hidden in every day that God gives you.