Learning to Appreciate Small Pleasures

One learning I was reminded of by the time in the Boundary Waters was how important simple pleasures can be toward bringing comfort to us in our daily lives. Dealing with the basics of living in the wilderness is so difficult that you become much more aware of the simple things which can bring true pleasure and joy to life. For instance:

1. It was a great thing when I finally cleaned off the lenses of my glasses with soap and water in the lake rather than using the soft lens cloth I was carrying, which only worked to a certain extent in removing the grease and grime of daily life. Having a clean pair of glasses I realized was almost a greater joy than having clean skin or hair. To have my glasses clean and have clear vision again - a true joy!

2. When you are truly hungry and physically spent almost anything tastes delicious - even Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches (which I ate for three lunches, and which I could not even begin to remember when I last had a PB & J sandwich before this). Even freeze dried fruit, which actually tastes sort of like Styrofoam, with a little bit of flavor added.

3. Being able to spend a lazy afternoon with my son, laying on the rocks by the shore of a beautiful lake, gazing up at the clouds floating by, changing shapes as they go, watching what they turn into and transform into and just chat with him about whatever comes to mind. A true Sabbath experience.

4. And the hot shower when you emerge from the wilderness that the Outfitters provides. This is by far the best shower, most luxurious feeling, you can have, after spending 6 days in the woods with only cold lake water to provide bathing options for you and even then tempered by the need to almost immediately recover your body with DEET mosquito repellent. Every time I have ended one of these trips I have luxuriated in the hot shower for at least 30 minutes (I know, probably very wasteful of water to all my eco-friendly, green friends), totally scrubbing my body with soap twice and shampooing my hair with large quantities of shampoo and conditioner. It is a true taste of heaven!

5. The taste of Dairy Queen hot dogs and Blizzards for a first meal after eating freeze dried food for a week. There is a Dairy Queen in the Two Harbors, the first sizable town we drive through after leaving the wilderness and heading south along the northern shore of Lake Superior. We stopped there five years ago for our first meal when I first took Paul and Rebekah on one of these trips with me and Paul and I stopped again this time. I would never, ever, order a Dairy Queen hot dog any other time or place, but at this moment after emerging from the wilderness it tastes divine.

The dilemma is how to be aware of these simple pleasures upon returning to the hustle and bustle and daily grind of regular life. I am sure that if I could be more aware of life at this level my life would be much richer and less stressed. I will have to keep meditating on this truth during the sabbatical.