SIMPLE PLEASURE #5: CONTENTMENT

I just came out of 5 months of intense organizing for The Fourth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest. It happened, it was a success, and I learned a lot about what works at a big event and what I'd do differently next time.

After Blogfest was over, a voice in my head shouted "NEXT!" and I pushed myself to set off on accomplishing a bunch of new goals. My body rebelled big time: it took major effort to get the smallest task done. Finally, I realized I needed to take a few days to just rest, be pleased with myself, and be CONTENT.

As Alice Walker (well, the character of Shug Avery) says in The Color Purple: "I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it."

So I'm deciding to stop for a moment to chill and notice the big victory I just pulled off with a lot of other people.

How right that in a used bookstore today, I found a gem of a book called - yes - Contentment:Wisdom from around the World by Gillian Stokes. Here's an excerpt:

Contentment is a state of grace, a state of peace and happiness,appreciation and enjoyment for what is, right now. Desires, in contrast, can never be satisfied. Once we get what we crave, we soon find it lessatisfying than we expected, so we strive for something else. The only escape from this perpetual wheel of want is to discover the contentment and perfection we already have.