I've found a new favourite short read. It's an occasional column in The Guardian called, The Joy of Small Things. It's very occasional: only seventeen articles have appeared since the column first appeared in October but Oh! I feel inspired!
I'm a great lover of simple pleasures. A few years ago I wrote a post about a lovely book called just that - Simple Pleasures. It's a book which is never far from me. It's got more than its fair share of coffee splashes and pencilled notes. As I said then, it's not so much that I have the same simple pleasures as the writers of that book but rather that they help me to appreciate the sources of joy in my own life.
One of the pleasures featured in the Guardian column is the joy of a new dressing gown. I maybe ought to be ashamed of my dressing gown. It's at least fifteen years old. It's a towelling robe but in some places the fabric has worn out and there are holes. A few years ago I dyed it and really it needs the same treatment again and it may even get that treatment for it is an old friend. I love it! While I am wearing it I am at leisure: fashion and looking good are far from my mind and I am at peace. It has seen me through happy Christmas mornings when I open my presents and days when I am trying to shake off a cold. Ir wraps me when I am fresh out of the shower and getting ready to go out and it envelopes me in my armchair when sleep eludes me in the middle of the night. I keep looking at rather more respectable new robes but I love this old friend.
I'm sitting in this tatty garment as I type this. I hope you feel as happy and contented as I do.
Thanks for reading.