1) Sitting down to dinner at home with a group of friends. We used to go out to eat a lot, but thanks be to God we now have an apartment near church where we can gather, and sit at our ease as long as we please in our own environment, and spend much less on food, and not have to tip anyone!
2) Weekdays at St. Peter Chanel, in between the 6 am Mass and the 7:20 am praying of the Office, there's time to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and make a (short) holy hour as the dark sky brightens to broad daylight. It's so quiet in the church and yet there are dozens of people there, praying before the new day begins, so one has the pleasure both of silent recollection and of like-minded companionship. Often there's a priest or two praying in the church as well, and that seems very good and fitting: priest and people praying together, all facing our Lord (it only just now occurred to me that it's reminiscent of an ad orientum Mass).
I love that time of day, but only when I prepare for it at other times, by going to bed early enough the night before to stay awake during the hour (did you know that I am capable of sleeping soundly while still maintaining a kneeling posture with hands folded piously under my chin?), and by not surfing the internet before leaving for Mass (that gives me too much to think about and distracts me when I'm in church.)
3) Nighttime walks in my hometown of Arcadia. I don't know why more people don't do this, but I'm glad they don't. There's a pleasure I can't explain in walking a neighborhood of lighted houses at night (especially when the Christmas lights are up!), knowing there are people nearby yet having the streets all to myself. It's odd, but that's the time I feel closest to the whole world and everyone in it. When distractions are removed from the immediate environment, there's space to think about and pray for others. Or to imagine I'm President of the United States and I'm whipping everyone into shape... not that I ever do anything as silly as that. :)4) People who read this blog. :) Shameless kissing up!
5) Giving someone a present I totally know they're going to love. Doing chores for my parents (like putting sermons on my mom's iPod, or printing out photos for them) has something of the same joy.
6) Busywork in the lab or housework at home that keeps my hands occupied and productive but leaves my mind free. I wonder if that's an unusual pleasure? I have several intelligent friends who complain when their work is boring and wish they had more people interaction, or some challenging technical problem to solve, or both. But I like it when my work is easy. Not sure if that's a good thing.
If you like this meme, please consider yourself tagged. And in particular I pick on Hithah, Athanasius, Mary Rose, Adrienne, the Cellarer, Rachel, John, Meg, Andrew, and Megan. But should they scorn my command I'll forgive them.
2 comments:
hehehe :)
Who is the WORLD are you talking about in #6? ;-)
And I don't partake in #3 because my neighborhood is way the heck too scary. I think I told you that when my car was broken into for the second time (both times when parked in my own carport), the forensics officer couldn't come lift prints because he was busy with a stabbing, and the regular officers were busy with the other three car-break-ins that had occurred that night on my block?
That's why I don't go walking at night. ;-) So I'll live vicariously through your stories and photos. Gorgeous house there!
And we are such opposites about #2. I'd be miserable trying to pray when it was all quiet in the pre-dawn hours. I'd fall asleep, I promise you, or if by some fluke I managed to stay awake, I'd be too lonely to concentrate properly. It's times when I'm around lots of other believers that I feel closest to God, like at a Harvest or during a really praise-oriented song at a concert. I focus best (on anything: God, coding, writing) when I have the buzz of humanity around me.
Fun list! :-D And thanks for tagging me. I'll try to make my own list at some point. :)
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