"The Simple Pleasures"

There it is.

That word again.

Simple.

"The Simple Pleasures."

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Niko coming onto the scene has really enhanced this sense of actively appreciating "the simple pleasures" in life.

The feel of the gas below my feet (or bum!). The breeze. Going for a walk. Going to the library.

It's almost as if the limitations created by having a kiddo to care for have opened up a world in which doing less is acceptable.

Ok, arguably having kiddo around doesn't have me "doing less" in every sense of that phrase. I am/ we are putting to bed, waking up, brushing teeth, lotioning, putting on whatever cream should be combating his eczema NOW, changing diapers, preparing and feeding meals, playing, bathing and doing whatever other kittle kid care and engagement is required for an 18 month old.

All of that said, my feeling of myself "doing less" remains, and not in a bad way!

Today, I will have done all that. Beyond that, 'all I'll really have done' was take a lovely trip to the library, during nap time watered the plants, cut my finger nails, a little meal prep and cooking and this writing, whatever we (Niko and I) get up to this afternoon (maybe a walk and a little playground time), plus dinner and bedtime. Surely I will do something after that - maybe watch a little TV with Kris, put together a new outdoor umbrella we ordered, or read.

Looking up at the above paragraph, it strikes me that it's still A LOT, what I will have done today. Perhaps more what I mean is "is what I'll have done today 'Enough,' as in 'Good Enough." 

And honestly, I have a much easier time giving a resounding "YES!" to that question than I ever expected I would. And this is what I mean by simple pleasures.

Nothing in the 'what I'll have done today' paragraph is extraordinary.

Does it need to be?

I think I am just feeling really grateful for the various zoom-outs with which Niko's presence has asked me to engage. It feels so good to lean into the whittle-down. We get up. We eat. We play. We eat again. I do some things I'd like to do - like cook and write - while he naps. We play again. We eat again. He goes to bed, and I connect with Kris or a friend, or take a dance class, catch a dance show or relax. That's what Tu/ Th are often like.

That's to say that all the above writing does not necessarily address what my life is like on M/ W/ F, and often Saturday and Sunday. About half the time, Saturday and Sunday are also like that. Sometimes they are not, because Kris and I work weird jobs. I am ok with it. In fact, I love it. Knowing most Tu/ Th will be like what I described above is part of what is allowing me to manage when the weekends are not weekends. And going hard on M/ W/ F.

I think I have, surprisingly, felt more balance than I have for a very long time, since mixing into my life paling around with my Niko love. Along with that has come a surprisingly-sizable-to-me amount of space for simple pleasures.

Like writing this while he naps :)

Fuck Your Stanley Tumbler

And also your plants.

I know. I came out hard and fast with this one.

This post probably should have been titled “An Anti-Love Letter From an Elder Millennial to Gen Z,” but it would still be harder than I intend. And too generalized.

We all know we cannot sum up an entire age band of people within a set of tidy assumptions (right, we know this?!), I'm just trying to be funny. Kind of (did it work?!).

Seriously though, as a person with a bit of a YouTube habit (I say a bit because I keep it under control!), I find myself hyper-amused by the shit younger folks seem to need - or at least what the YouTuber stereotypes are. And specifically how those stereotypes fan their way back out into real life.

I see this a lot in the seeming obsession with plants in younger folks. That said, perhaps this is a 38-year-old tapping into her curmudgeonly side, getting testy because she herself cannot seem to keep the most robust of houseplants alive! Perhaps it's a good thing that this is a younger-person-fad I don't really want to get into. I am perfectly happy with my three long-term houseplants I think I water once every few weeks (even less than I did before kiddo came onto the scene), and my handful of potted outdoor plants that demonstrate the minimum modicum of annual landscape care I've come to expect from myself.

But, ah, the Stanley Tumbler. WHY?! As someone who owns two Hydroflasks (a cute, squat yellow one for my coffee and a larger white one for my water), the 'it beverage containers' (geez, that's a THING?) of five years ago, perhaps I don't get the right to ask this question. But really, I purchased them sheerly out of functional desires, I promise! 

This Stanley Tumbler thing is large. It's ugly. It doesn't seem real functional, at least for MY purposes. But hey, to each their own? I would say it just surprises me the amount of cash people will drop on this shit, but the person writing this is the same person who happily drops $120.00 on a pair of athleisure pants (again, purely functional, I promise!). 

As it turns out, this is just another ramble that affirms the age-old truth that we all indeed live our own lives. I think I just find it amazing that in todays seemingly more and more culturally hegemonic world, we all seem to want to own the same shit to express 'who we are.'

Has it always been thus? I guess all I can do is live a little longer, and a little longer, and keep noticing what I notice to try to get to the bottom of this and other questions.

Will I ever? I sort of doubt it.

Is that totally magical?

Yes. Totally :)