I am a pessimist. Really. It’s in the title of my blog and it’s so true. My natural inclination is to look on the negative side of life and situations. But as I get older – call it growth? – I’m trying to be intentional about looking for good, happy things. I fail and I forget. A lot. But sometimes I manage to take notice and remember…it’s fun to be easily delighted.
In late March, when we brought out our Easter décor, L took it upon himself to hide plastic eggs everywhere. Most of them ended up on the mantle, but colour me surprised – and delighted – late one night when I grabbed the bottle of shampoo while showering and a hot pink plastic egg fell out from its hiding place into the tub.
When I hopped out of the shower and grabbed my hair towel off the back of the door, a pastel purple egg clattered to the tile floor.
And when I went to water the lone plant in our bathroom a few days later – you guessed it – there was a brightly-coloured egg hiding among the leaves.
I was delighted each and every time – an unknowing participant in an egg hunt I didn’t even know had been set up for my benefit.
Your turn. What “little thing” has delighted you recently?
Header photo by freestocks on Unsplash
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Daria
My kids’ spring pictures from their respective schools- it’s so wonderful (and bitter sweet) to see how much they’ve grown 🙂
Elisabeth
Aww! What a great delight. Year-over-year pictures (school pics, pictures with Santa, etc) REALLY showcase how quickly kids grow and change.
Nicole MacPherson
Ahhh, this is delightful! I’m just imagining little eggs everywhere, and it’s making me smile.
Elisabeth
It was delightful. Even though we’ve put away the Easter things, I’m still finding eggs scattered around the house…
Jenny
You were delighted, and your eggs weren’t even filled with candy! WHY are Easter egg hunts so fun??? Not that you were in an official “hunt.” But I still hide eggs for my kids to find on Easter morning and they still enjoy it.
I’ve had a lot of things lately that made me happy, but I would say an unexpected delight was getting a surprise postcard in the mail ; )
Elisabeth
Yay for surprise postcards that make you smile (and make your husband incredulous…haha…”Who do we know that went to Barcelona!?“)
NGS
We went on a road trip with a friend several years ago and I would get so excited about every milestone along the way. It’s the orange moose! That means we’re halfway there! The skyline! Woot woot! My friend mentioned that I was more enthusiastic about these things than any person he’d ever met and my husband just smiled and said that I’m like that with EVERYTHING. And he’s right.
There’s a supper club with an amazing neon sign that doesn’t work about 25% of the time. We drive by this sign every week going to the grocery store and I always get excited when it’s fully working. The Stagecoach sign is AMAZING tonight!
So it’s with some concern that I point out to you that I’m struggling to answer your question right now. I’m having a challenging time and there were so many FUN THINGS that happened even yesterday (eclipse! a package in the mail from a friend! answering a challenging question at work!), but nothing was truly delightful. I’m just working my way through life right now and hopefully the delight will come again soon.
Elisabeth
An orange moose is exciting. And the fact the neon sign only works part of the time makes it all the more special!!
Life can be such a slog. I feel you, my friend <3
Gigi
The absolute delight I feel at your unexpected egg hunt is beyond words. What a sweet and fun gesture from L!
Elisabeth
Well isn’t that just the ideal? My delight making someone else delighted. And I bet L was delighted when he hid them…:)
Melissa
This is wonderful. Kids can be great! I’m going to pick popping into our church op shop and finding a beautiful 3000-piece puzzle.
Elisabeth
Ha – it takes all kinds! A 3000-piece puzzle would send me into an anxious tizzy, but I can see why it was absolutely delightful for you. I am just in awe – AWE! – that people have the patience and mental fortitude to put together a 3,000-piece puzzle. It’s kinda a life goal for me. Maybe when I don’t have a teen in the house weakening both my patience and mental fortitude I’ll be ready to give it a go.
I’ve maxed out at 500 and that has been more than enough for me so far!
Stephany
I’ve been following along on this woman’s search for REAL DYED EGGS that her toddler daughter left around the house. They had done an egg hunt with plastic eggs and then dyed real eggs, and her daughter thought it would be fun to hide those around the house. !!! The mom had found most of them but there were a few she couldn’t find, and she was on the hunt. HA. That gave me a lot of delight. (They ended up finding all the eggs – the last one they found IN A VENT, ahhh).
Elisabeth
That’s adorable. Though do dyed real eggs go bad? Can you imagine finding a rotten egg STUCK IN A VENT?! I’m sure it has happened and YUCK.
Lisa’s Yarns
Oh those are fun little surprises. I am like you and am a pessimist but I am trying to work on my glass half empty nature. What has delighted me lately is reading chapter books with Paul! He doesn’t need pictures in the books anymore to hold his attention! I still love picture books but love this stage of his reading development!
Elisabeth
Paul is going to LOVE all the reading and you are so well suited for this stage! Chapter books are a revelation <3
That said, I miss picture books. *Sob*
We were at the library this week and I am so out of the picture book loop. It's crazy how it was such a dominant part of my life - we went to the library weekly, brought home 100s of picture books a year, and read hours a week. And now - POOF - it's over. I mean, I don't want to go back to parenting those ages but, even still, I MISS THE PICTURE BOOKS. (This is clearly what grandchildren are for...)
San
Awww, I love this. It’s worth it to look for the little things!
I am an optimist by nature but I still find the exercise worthwhile. My latest delight: my perfect bread that I just pulled out of the oven 😉 I still can’t believe I am able to bake my own bread.
Elisabeth
I am such a pessimist.
Your comment came at a good time as I am making some no-knead bread for supper. We’ll see how it turns out. My yeast has expired which is a huge no-no, but I learned years ago to store it in the freezer and it stays dormant/active for much longer…fingers crossed. If it doesn’t turn out, we’ll be having crackers 🙂